•THE  GIRL 
IN  HER  TEENS 


BY 

MARGARET  SLATTERY 


The  Sunday  School  Times  Company 
Philadelphia 


COPYRIGHT,  igio, 

BY 
THE  SUNDAY  SCHOOL  TIMES  COMPANY 

r$O 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 
THE  TEEN  PERIOD .       i 

CHAPTER  II 
THE  PHYSICAL  SIDE 14 

CHAPTER  III 
THE  MENTAL  SIDE 28 

CHAPTER  IV 
THE  SPIRITUAL  SIDE 42 

CHAPTER  V 
THE  SOCIAL  SIDE 59 

CHAPTER  VI 
HER  RELATION  TO  THE  SUNDAY-SCHOOL   ...    71 

CHAPTER  VII 
HER  RELATION  TO  THE  CHURCH 83 

CHAPTER  VIII 
HER  RELATION  TO  THE  BIBLE     .......    94 

CHAPTER  IX 
HER  RELATION  TO  THE  EVERYDAY    .    .    .    .    .  105 

CHAPTER  X 
HER  TEACHER  116 


260690 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  TEEN   PERIOD 

She  was  a  beautiful,  well-developed  girl  of 
thirteen.  Her  bright,  eager  face,  with  its 
changing  expression,  was  a  fascination  at  all 
times.  It  seemed  unusually  earnest  and  seri- 
ous that  particular  morning  as  she  stood  wait- 
ing the  opportunity  to  speak  to  me.  She  had 
asked  to  wait  until  the  others  had  gone,  and 
her  manner  as  she  hesitated  even  then  to 
speak  made  me  ask,  "Are  you  in  trouble, 
Edith?" 

"No,  not  exactly  trouble, — I  don't  know 
whether  we  ought  to  ask  you,  but  all  of  us 
girls  think, — well,  we  wish  we  could  have  a 
mirror  in  the,  locker-room.  Couldn't  we? 
It's  dreadful  to  go  into  school  without  know- 
ing how  your  hair  looks  or  anything!" 

I  couldn't  help  laughing.  Her  manner  was 
so  tragic  that  the  mirro'r  seemed  the  most  im- 
portant thing  in  the  educational  system  just 
then.  I  said  I  would  see  what  could  be  done 
about  it,  and  felt  sure  that  what  "all  the  girls" 
wanted  could  be  supplied.  She  thanked  me 
heartily,  and  when  she  entered  her  own  room 
i 


THE   GIRL   IN    HER  TEENS 

nodded  her  head  in  answer  to  inquiring  glances 
from  the  other  girls. 

As  I  made  a  note  of  the  request,  I  remem- 
bered the  Edith  of  a  year  or  more  ago.  Edith, 
whose  mother  found  her  a  great  trial;  she 
didn't  "care  how  she  looked."  It  was  true. 
She  wore  her  hat  hanging  down  over  her 
black  braids,  held  on  by  the  elastic  band 
around  her  neck;  she  lost  hair  ribbons  con- 
tinually, and  never  seemed  to  miss  them.  She 
was  a  good  scholar,  wide-awake,  alert,  always 
ready  for  the  next  thing.  She  loved  to  recite, 
and  volunteered  information  generously.  In 
games  she  was  the  leader,  and  on  the  play- 
ground always  the  unanimous  choice  for  the 
coveted  "it"  of  the  game.  She  was  never  in 
the  least  self-conscious,  and,  as  her  mother 
had  said,  how  she  looked  never  seemed  to 
occur  to  her. 

And  now  she  came  asking  for  a  mirror! 
Her  hair  ribbons  are  always  present  and  her 
hat  securely  fastened  by  hat  pins  of  ham- 
mered brass.  She  spends  a  good  deal  of 
time  in  school  "arranging"  her  hair.  Some- 
times spelling  suffers,  sometimes  algebra.  Be- 
fore standing  to  recite,  she  carefully  arranges 
her  belt.  Contrary  to  her  previous  custom, 
she  rarely  volunteers,  although  her  scholar- 
ship is  very  good.  If  unable  to  give  the  cor- 


THE     T  E  EN      PERIOD 

rect  answer,  or  when  obliged  to  face  the 
school,  she  blushes  painfully.  One  day  re- 
cently, when  the  class  were  reading  "As  You 
Like  It,"  she  sat  with  a  dreamy  look  upon  her 
sweet  face,  far,  far  away  from  the  eighth- 
grade  class-room;  could  not  find  her  place 
when  called  upon  to  read,  and,  although  con- 
fused and  ashamed,  lost  it  again  within  ten 
minutes. 

What  has  happened  to  Edith,  the  child  of 
a  year  ago?  She  has  gone.  The  door  has 
opened.  Edith  is  thirteen.  The  door  opened 
slowly,  and  those  who  knew  her  best  were 
perhaps  least  conscious  of  the  changes,  so 
gradual  had  they  been.  But  a  new  Edith  is 
here.  One  by  one  the  chief  characteristics 
of  the  childhood  of  the  race  have  been  left 
behind,  and  the  dawn  of  the  new  life  has 
brought  to  her  the  dim  consciousness  of  uni-N 
versal  womanhood.  Womanhood  means  many 
things,  but  always  three — dreaming,  longing, 
loving.  All  three  have  come  to  her,  and  though 
unconscious  of  their  meaning,  she  feels  their 
power]  E3itK"~has  seen  herself,  is  interested 
in  herself,  has  become  self-conscious,  and  for 
the  next  few  years  self  will  be  the  center 
and  every  act  will  be  weighed  and  measured 
in  relation  to  this  new  self.  Fifty  other  girls, 
her  friends  and  companions  all  just  entering 
3 


THE   GIRL  IN  HER  TEENS 

their  teens,  share  the  same  feelings,  and  mani- 
fest development  along  the  same  general  lines. 
More  than  one  of  those  fifty  mothers  looks 
at  her  daughter  growing  so  rapidly  and  awk- 
wardly tall,  and  says,  "I  don't  know  what  to 
do  with  her,  she  has  changed  so."  And  more 
than  one  teacher  summons  all  her  powers  to 
active  service  as  she  realizes  that  for  the 
next  two  years  she  is  to  instruct  one  of  the 
most  difficult  of  pupils,  the  girl  who  is  neither 
child  nor  woman. 

But  the  awkward  years  of  early  adolescence, 
filled  with  the  struggle  to  get  adjusted  to  the 
new  order  of  things,  with  dreams,  with  ar- 
dent worship  of  ideals  embodied  in  teachers, 
parents,  older  girls,  imaginary  characters, 
quickly  pass. 

If  they  have  been  years  of  careful  training, 
if  the  eager,  impetuous  day-dreamer  and  cas- 
tle-builder has  been  guarded  and  shielded, 
if  she  has  been  instructed  by  mother,  teacher, 
or  some  wise  sympathetic  woman  in  all  the 
knowledge  that  will  help  keep  her  safe  and 
pure  and  fine,  therushe  is  ready  for  the  wealth 
of  emotion,  the  increase  of  the  intellectual  and 
spiritual  power  to  be  developed  within  her 
these  next  few  years. 

But  if  not — if  the  earliest  years  have  been 
filled  with  questions  for  which  no  satisfactory 
4 


THE     TEEN      PERIOD 

answers  were  given,  if  great  mysteries  that 
puzzle  are  solved  for  her  only  by  what  school- 
mates, patent  medicine  advertisements,  and 
imagination  can  teach,  then  she  does  not  have 
a  fair  chance.  She  is  not  well  equipped  for 
life,  and  if  in  some  moment  of  trial  which 
we  fondly  dream  will  never,  never  come  to 
her,  to  others  perhaps,  but  not  to  her,  she  is 
overwhelmed,  then  we  who  have  left  her 
unguarded  are  to  blame. 

If  at  thirteen  she  was  awkward  and  some- 
times disagreeable,  at  sixteen  we  forget  all 
aEout  it,  for  now  she  is  charming.  The  flood- 
tide  o.f  life  is  upon  her, — it  is  June,  and  all 
the  world  is  her  lover.  To  be  alive  is  glorious ; 
she  shows  it  in  all  that  she  says  and  does. 
She  laughs  at  everything  and  at  nothing,  and 
she  dearly  loves  "a  good  time."  She  makes 
use  of  all  the  adjectives  in  her  mother  tongue, 
and  yet  they  are  not  enough  to  express  all  that 
she  feels.  Superlatives  abound,  and  a  simple 
pronoun,  third  person,  singular  number,  mas- 
culine gender,  is  introduced  so  often  into  her 
conversation  with  her  girl  friends  that  it  re- 
veals at  least  one  prominent  "line  of  interest." 

But  she  is  a  dreamer  still  of  new,  deeper 

dreams  in  which  self  plays  a  large  part,  but 

a  different  and  more  altruistic  one ;  and  the 

longings  that  dawned  on  her  soul  with  ado- 

5 


THE  GIRL  IN  HER  TEENS 

lescence  have  grown  in  power.  She  not  only 
longs  for  the  concrete  hats  and  gowns  and 
beautiful  things,  to  sing  and  play,  to  be 
admired,  to  be  popular,  but  she  longs  to  be 
good  and  to  do  good.  Now,  when  all  her 
powers  have  awakened,  obeying  instincts  of 
her  womanhood,  she  is  ready  to  give  herself 
in  loving  service  to  some  great  cause,  to  serve 
the  world. 

All  teachers  of  English  composition  can 
testify  to  the  desire  tosejrve  which  stands  out 
so  clearly  in  the  essay  work  of  girls  at  this 
period.  Hazel  is  a  type  of  hundreds.  She 
attended  a  lecture  a  while  ago  and  saw  pictures 
of  the  tenements;  the  crowded  conditions, 
wretched  poverty  and  suffering  children 
stirred  her  soul.  Every  composition  since  has 
been  a  record  of  her  dreams  and  longings. 
In  every  written  sketch  or  story  a  wretched 
child  of  the  tenements  appears.  A  girl  of 
means,  "about  sixteen  years  of  age,"  with 
plenty  of  spending  money,  seeks  out  the  child, 
often  crippled  or  blind,  gives  it  food,  clothing, 
a  wheel  chair,  or  takes  it  to  a  great  physician 
who  makes  it  well.  Sometimes  the  heroine 
finds  work  for  father  and  mother,  and  they 
move  to  a  cottage  in  the  country  and  are  happy. 
Always  in  the  story  misery  is  relieved  and 
hearts  are  made  glad.  Always  the  heroine  is 
6 


THE     TEEN      PERIOD 

self-sacrificing  and  those  helped  are  touched 
with  deepest  gratitude.  In  the  last  story, 
"Little  Elsie  sat  comfortably  back  in  her 
wheel  chair  too  happy  even  to  move  it 
about.  Her  mother  tried  to  find  words  to  ex- 
press her  gratitude,  but  could  only  murmur  her 
thanks.  The  child  looked  up  into  the  face  of 
her  kind  friend  with  a  celestial  smile  that  paid 
for  all  the  sacrifice." 

This  desire  to  give  all  in  altruistic  service, 
this  longing  to  make  the  whole  world  happy, 
this  worship  of  the  Good  reveals  itself  too  in 
the  girFs  effort  "to  find  her  Lord  and  worship 
Him."  The  religious  sense,  so  strong  in  the 
heart  of  the  race  that  man  must  bow  down  and 
worship  something,  some  one,  be  it  fire,  the 
moon,  the  stars,  the  river,  ancestors,  idols  of 
wood  or  stone,  is  strong  in  the  heart  of  the  girl 
in  her  teens.  And  if  rightly  taught  and  pre- 
sented, the  Christ  unfailingly  becomes  her 
great  ideal.  All  the  qualities  she  most  admires 
she  finds  in  him.  Bravery,  courage,  purity  and 
strength,  patience  and  sympathy,  all  are  there 
and  she  worships  him.  For  him  she  can  per- 
form deeds  of  quiet  heroism  of  which  no  one 
dreams, — struggle  desperately  to  overcome 
her  faults,  and  sacrifice  many  a  pleasure  wil- 
lingly. Her  prayers  are  ardent  and  sincere,  and 
must  rise  to  heaven  as  an  acceptable  offering. 
7 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

I  saw  such  a  girl  bow  her  head  in  prayer  in 
the  crowded  church  on  Easter  morning.  Her 
face  was  good  to  see.  Death  and  the  grave 
meant  nothing  to  her,  but  oh,  LIFE — it  was  so 
good.  Sixteen  found  her  hard  at  work  in  the 
cotton  factory.  But  looking  at  her  in  her  new 
suit  and  hat  and  gloves,  and  at  the  one  bright 
yellow  jonquil  she  wore  so  proudly,  you  would 
never  have  guessed  that  a  week  of  toil  lay  be- 
hind her  and  another  awaited  her.  That  night 
she  sang  a  brief  solo  in  the  chorus  choir,  and 
did  it  well;  one  of  the  boys  in  the  church 
walked  home  with  her,  they  talked  a  few  mo- 
ments, and  Easter  was  over.  At  five-thirty  next 
morning  she  rose,  ate  her  hasty,  meager  break- 
fast, and  went  to  work  in  the  rain.  A  week 
later,  when  we  were  talking  after  Sunday- 
school,  she  said,  "I  don't  know  as  I  ever  had 
such  a  happy  Easter.  It  was  such  a  beautiful 
day."  And  then  hesitatingly,  "I  made  up  my 
mind  I  ought  to  be  better  than  I  have  been,  and 
I'm  not  going  to  let  my  sister  go  to  work  in  the 
mill,  no  matter  what  it  costs  me.  I'm  going  to 
send  her  to  high  school  next  year  instead  of 
taking  singing  lessons.  I  decided  Easter  night." 

I  could  see  her  sitting  in  her  bare,  hopeless 

little  room,  with  the  memory  of  the  sunshine, 

the  new  suit  and  the  jonquil,  the  solo,  and  the 

Risen  Lord  filling  her  soul  as  she  made  her 

8 


THE     TEEN      PERIOD 

sacrifice,  letting  the  cherished  plan  of  singing 
lessons  go. 

"What  made  you  want  to  do  it?"  I  asked. 

"I  don't  know,"  she  said,  "I  felt  that  I 
ought  to,  and  Easter  makes  you  think  of  those 
things.  I  think  Christians  ought  to  be  more 
like  Christ,  as  Dr. said  in  his  sermon." 

That  was  the  explanation.  She  was  follow- 
ing, the  best  she  knew  how,  the  pathway  of  the 
Christ — her  ideal.  God  bless  her, — the  sacri- 
fice will  pay. 

\Failing  to  find  the  Christ,  the  religious  sense 
satisfies  itself  with  lower  idealsj  Intensified 
longings,  dissatisfaction,  and  a  restlessness 
not  found  in  the  girl  who  truly  gives  her 
allegiance  to  the  Christ  and  feels  his  steadying 
power,  are  very  evident  in  the  girl  who  has  not 
yet  found  the  one  whom  she  can  call  Master 
and  Lord. 

Keeping  pace  with  the  deepening  and  broad- 
ening of  the  religious  sense  and  the  physical 
growth  and  development,  the  intellectual 
powers  have  been  busy  grasping  new  truths, 
eagerly  seizing  new  facts  that  relate  to  life, 
comparing,  rejecting,  reasoning,  indeed  for  the 
first  time  independently  thinking. 

Before  her  friends  realize  it,  the  years  have 
hurried  past  and  the  time  has  come  when  only 
one  more  "teen"   remains.     She  is  eighteen, 
9 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

Eighteen  may  find  her  plunged  into  life  as  a 
wage-earner,  one  of  the  procession  of  thou- 
sands of  girls  facing  realities  that  are  hard. 
It  may  find  her  already  in  the  whirl  of  social 
life,  struggling  to  meet  its  demands,  or  in 
college  facing  its  problems.  Wherever  it  finds 
her,  two  things  are  true  of  her.  (She  thinks 
for  herself, — and  she  is  critical. 

Many  of  the  theories  of  life  and  religion 
which  she  accepted  unquestioningly  she  ques- 
tions now.  Doubts  assail  her,  and  she  is  per- 
plexed by  the  evidence  of  wrong  and  evil  re- 
sulting not  only  fcom  weakness,  but  from 
deliberate  planning.  Vlf  all  her  ideals  fail  her, 
if  the  men  and  women  she  has  trusted  dis- 
appoint her,  she  grows  cynical,  and  tells  you 
that  "no  one  is  what  he  seems.'/ 
^  Now,  more  than  at  any  time  in  her  life, 
(she  needs  to  meet  fine  men  and  women,  that 
they  may  overbalance  those  whom  she  thinks 
have  failed.  She  needs  to  know  definitely  the 
good  being  done  everywhere  in  the  world,  to 
study  great  sociological  movements,  to  see  the 
efforts  being  made  to  meet  the  special  needs 
of  the  day,  the  problems  of  the  cities,  and  the 
salvation  of  the  individual.  Biography  is  good 
for  her,  and  sketches  of  real  men  and  women 
living  and  working  for  and  with  their  fellows 
strengthen  her  faith  and  steady  her. 


THE     TEEN      PERIOD 

Now  is  the  time  when  she  so  easily  develops 
into  a  gossip,  and  she  needs  anything  and 
everything  that  wH!Jj£ljL...her;  despise  it,  and 
provide  her  with  something  to  talk  about  be- 
side her  neighbors  and  associates.  / 

;She  is  keenly  critical,  because  she  is  com- 
paring theories  and  life — because  her  ideals 
are  high  and  her  requirements  match  her 
ideals.  She  is  scornful,  because  she  has  not 
lived  long  enough  to  realize  how  easy  it  is  to 
fail,  and  she  has  not  learned  to  let  mercy 
temper  justice.  She  doubts  because  she  is  not 
able  to  adjust  things  which  seem  to  conflict, 
and  experience  has  not  yet ,  helped  her  find 
harmony  in  seeming  discord./ 

She  still  loves  a  good  time,  and  has  it.  Her 
ability  as  leader,  manager,  or  organizer  reveals 
itself  quickly  if  opportunity  is  given.  Her 
tendency  toward  introspection  and  self  analy- 
sis often  makes  her  unhappy,  dissatisfied  and 
restless.  She  longs  unspeakably  to  find  her 
work,  to  be  sure  she  is  in  the  right  place  in 
the  great  world.  She  needs  patience,  real  sym- 
pathy, and  understanding  from  those  with 
whom  she  lives ;  to  be  led,  not  driven,  by  those 
who  control  her ;  positive  teaching  on  the  part 
of  all  who  instruct  her,  concrete  interests,  so- 
cial opportunities,  and 'some  one  to  love. 

"What  does  the  girl  in  her  teens  need  ?"  has 
ii 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

been  asked  these  past  few  years,  by  fathers, 
mothers,  and  teachers  of  girls,  with  increasing 
desire  to  find  a  real  answer.  As  yet,  not 
enough  thoughtful  people  have  even  attempted 
to  meet  the  question  to  make  us  sure  that  we 
have  a  safe  and  universal  answer.  Yet  we 
may  be  reasonably  sure  of  a  few  things. 

She  needs  love.  But,  comes  the  reply,  we 
do  love  her.  From  the  time  when  she 
"lengthens"  her  dresses  and  "does  up"  her 
hair,  to  twenty  when  we  greet  her  as  an  equal 
and  consult  her  about  all  things,  we  love  her. 
Who  could  help  it? 

But  she  needs  intelligent  love,  which  is 
really  sympathetic  understanding  and  keen  ap- 
preciation wisely  expressed.  And  she  needs, 
from  thirteen  to  twenty,  to  be  taught— two 
things :  to  work  and  to  play.  The  girl  in  her 
teens  needs  to  be  helped  to  realiz£4^r~-dxearns 
in  action. 

She  has  the  dreams,  the  hopes,  desires  and 
longings.  We  must  furnish  the  opportunity  to 
work  them  out  into  reality^  Real,  healthful, 
natural  enthusiasms  for  all  phases  of  life,  she 
can  furnish  if  she  be  a  normally  developed  girl. 
The  opportunity  to  express  that  enthusiastic 
abundance  of  life  legitimately  is  ours  to 
supply. 

It  sometimes  seems  as  if  Shakespeare  must 

12 


THE     TEEN      PERIOD 

have  been  thinking  of  the  adolescent  period  of 
life  when  he  said: 

"There  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs  of  me'n, 
Which  taken  at  the  flood  leads  on  to  fortune, 
Omitted,  all  the  voyage  of  their  life 
Is  bound  in  shallows  and  in  miseries." 

The  teen  age  is  the  period  where  the  battle 
for  an  honest,  clean,  pure,  righteous  type  of 
manhood  and  womanhood  must  be  waged  and 
won.  Having  realized  this,  it  now  remains  for 
us  to  bend  all  our  energies  and  summon  all  our 
skill  to  meet  the  task. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    PHYSICAL    SIDE 

That  mankind  has  a  spiritual,  mental  and 
physical  side  to  his  nature  has  been  acknowl- 
edged for  many  centuries.  That  they  are  of 
equal  importance  has  been  accepted  but  for  a 
comparatively  short  time.  Time  was  when 
the  spiritual  nature  was  developed,  the  mental 
side  cultivated,  and  the  physical  scorned 
and  abused.  The  pale  face  and  emaciated 
form  were  indications  of  the  pure  heart.  The 
starved  body  meant  the  well  nourished  soul. 
When  men  were  most  deeply  concerned  with 
the  future  beyond  the  grave,  and  this  life  was 
but  a  penance,  a  period  to  be  endured,  a 
terrible  battle  to  win,  having  little  joy,  and  al- 
most no  pleasure  not  labeled  wicked,  it  was 
natural  that  they  should  treat  with  a  measure 
of  scorn  or  ignore  altogether  the  physical 
body  in  which  dwelt  so  much  of  evil.  But 
when  man  realized  that  eternity  begins  here 
and  now,  he  turned  his  thoughts  to  the  present 
welfare  of  his  fellows,  and  the  physical  side 
assumed  a  new  importance. 

In  some  cases  the  importance  attached  to 
14 


THE      PHYSICAL      SIDE 

physical  welfare  is  out  of  proportion.  It  is 
always  difficult  to  keep  a  sense  of  proportion 
when  new  light  on  any  line  of  truth  bursts 
upon  men's  minds.  But  in  the  main  the 
place  of  the  physical  side  is  not  exaggerated. 
Every  teacher  in  the  public  school  realizes 
it  as  she  sees  what  a  tremendous  difference 
has  been  made  in  the  spiritual  and  intellect- 
ual development  of  a  child  who  after  years 
of  ineffectual  struggle  to  see  has  been  given 
glasses  that  make  it  possible  for  him  to  do 
the  same  work  as  his  classmates.  She  realizes 
it  as  with  astonishment  she  sees  a  boy 
transformed  before  her  eyes,  changed  into  an 
entirely  different  child  as  the  weeks  and 
months  pass,  because  the  troublesome  and 
deadening  adenoids  have  been  removed.  She 
realizes  it  as  she  sees  a  poor,  weak  little  girl, 
undersized  and  underfed,  changed  into  a  new 
being  under  treatment,  with  plenty  of  nourish- 
ing food  and  fresh  air.  .  The  experience  of  the 
past  ten  years  alone,  in  the  public  schools, 
will  convince  one  of  the  value  of  the  physical. 
Certain  it  is  that  the  physical  side  exists, 
and  is  to  be  reckoned  with  in  the  develop- 
ment of  human  life  to  the  highest  possible 
point.  The  more  we  know  about  the  physical 
side,  the  more  we  stand  in  awe  of  ourselves, 
and  the  more  we  appreciate  the  wonderful 
15 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

machine  with  which  we  are  to  do  our  work  in 
the  world. 

I  saw  recently  two  locomotives  that  taught 
me  again  what  it  all  means.  One  had  been  in 
a  wreck  and  lay  pitched  over  on  its  side,  its 
splendid  power  gone.  Its  size  and  its  powerful 
strength  made  its  ruin  more  pitiful,  and  its 
utter  helplessness  appealed  strongly  to  all 
who  looked  at  it.  Near  it  on  the  second  track, 
all  hot  and  panting,  ready  and  waiting  to  pull 
its  heavy  load  up  the  steep  grade,  was  a  fellow 
engine,  in  full  possession  of  its  powers:  how 
strong,  how  complete,  how  perfectly  able  to 
perform  its  task  it  seemed  as  it  stood  there  on 
the  track  beside  its  helpless  brother.  For  days 
I  could  not  forget  the  picture,  and  when  I 
looked  into  the  faces  of  my  girls  in  their  teens 
all  it  suggested  impressed  me  anew. 

How  I  should  like  to  have  them  fully 
equipped  physically  to  meet  the  demands 
which  life  will  bring  to  them !  The  girl  in 
her  teens  has  a  physical  side  of  tremendous 
significance  and  importance,  for  it  is  during 
these  years  that  she  develops  her  powers  or 
wrecks  them.  It  is  her  time  of  rapid  growth, 
of  severe  tax  upon  every  part  of  her  physical 
being.  It  is  during  these  years  she  meets 
her  crises. 

We  have  seen  that  early  in  her  teens  a  girl 
16 


THE      PHYSICAL      SIDE 

begins  to  care  "how  she  looks/'  She  should 
be  encouraged  to  look  well.  She  should  dress 
carefully,  which  does  not  mean  expenditure 
of  much  money,  but  does  mean  thought.  She 
should  be  taught  that  dress  means  much,  and 
physical  condition  even  more. 

But  all  this,  some  teachers  may  say,  belongs 
in  the  home.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  home  to 
look  after  these  things.  Yes,  it  is  true.  And 
it  is  a  cause  for  thanksgiving  that  in  so  many 
homes,  sweet,  patient,  wise  mothers  watch 
over  their  girls  and  give  them  what  they  need. 
But  every  Sunday-school  teacher  of  girls  in 
their  teens  has  at  least  one  girl  whose  mother 
does  not  or  can  not  help  at  the  time  when 
help  is  most  needed.  Some  have  had  no  train- 
ing themselves  and  do  not  see  the  need ;  some 
are  crushed  by  the  multitude  of  burdens,  some 
are  careless,  and  some  have  no  knowledge  as 
to  how  to  cope  with  the  wilfulness  of  girls 
which  sometimes  appears  in  the  years  of  ado- 
lescence. "The  whole  need  not  a  physician,  but 
they  that  are  sick,"  the  great  Teacher  said 
once,  and  it  is  true  to-day.  Both  the  public 
school  and  the  Sunday-school  exist  to  culti- 
vate all  of  good  that  appears  in  the  girl's 
life,  and  develop  what  she  lacks. 

Here  is  a  group  of  girls  in  a  certain  Sunday- 
school  class,  most  of  them  well  taken  care  of 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

physically,  but  with  very  little  of  direct  teach- 
ing and  development  morally.  They  are  self- 
ish, self-centered,  and  vain.  The  teacher's 
task  is  clear.  Here  is  another  class  in  a  near- 
by church,  suffering  not  only  from  moral  and 
intellectual  neglect,  but  from  physical  as  well. 
Again  the  teacher's  task  is  plain. 

We  have  seen  that  buried  deep  in  the  heart 
of  every  adolescent  girl  is  the  desire  to  be  at- 
tractive, to  be  popular,  to  have  people  "like" 
her.  -This  desire  prompts  her  often  to  little 
acts  of'courtesy  and  kindness  and  efforts  to 
be  agreeable;  more  often  it  prompts  her  to 
make  herself  physically  attractive^1  Take  a 
walk  through  any  park,  along  the  boulevards, 
up  the  main  street  of  small  manufacturing 
towns,  or  watch  any  high  school  group  at  the 
hour  of  dismissal:  if  your  eyes  are  open  you 
will  be  conscious  of  the  struggle  to  be  attract- 
ive,— to  look  well.  It  is  registered  in  hair  and 
hats,  bows  and  chains  and  pins.  Sometimes 
it  appears  in  fads  in  dress, — low  shoes  and  silk 
stockings  in  winter,  or  the  strange  combination 
of  no  hat,  a  very  thin  coat,  and  a  huge  muff. 
These  are  the  things  that  make  the  people  of 
common  sense  ask  the  very  pertinent  question, 
"What  are  these  girls'  mothers  thinking  of?" 
It  is  a  hard  question  to  answer  satisfactorily. 
Often  the  mothers  have  helplessly  yielded 
18 


THE      PHYSICAL      SIDE 

under  the  power  of  that  insistent  phrase,  "All 
the  girls  do." 

If  once  these  girls  can  be  made  to  see  the 
attractiveness  of  absolute  cleanliness,  of  the 
charm  of  simple  but  spotless  clothing,  of  teeth, 
hair,  hands  and  skin  that  show  care,  a  great 
deal  will  have  been  done  toward  helping  their 
general  physical  condition. 

Anything  which  has  to  do  with  personal  ap- 
pearance must  be  handled  with  great  tact,  for 
the  adolescent  girl  is  sensitive  and  she  resents 
direct  criticism.  But  on  the  other  hand  she 
accepts  eagerly  anything  which  promises  to 
help  her  look  well.  If  a  teacher  does  not  feel 
equal  to  the  task  of  assisting  the  girl  to  make 
the  best  of  her  physical  side  she  can  find  some 
one  to  help  her.  I  know  of  one  class  of  girls 
in  their  teens  who  will  never  forget  the  talk 
given  by  a  bright,  attractive,  clever  woman  at 
the  monthly  social,  on  "Tales  Told  by  Belts," 
and  not  a  girl  in  the  Girls'  Club,  I  know,  ever 
forgot  the  talk  on  "Sometimes  the  Head  Rules 
and  Sometimes  the  Feet!'  More  girls  than 
usual  wore  rubbers  the  next  rainy  day,  and 
some  high  heels  disappeared. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  helpful  of  the 
litttle  incidental  ways  by  which  the  Sunday- 
school  teachers  may  help  is  through  prajjse. 
I  have  in  mind  now  a  girl  of  sixteen  who 
19 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

usually  selected  her  own  clothes,  and  seemed 
to  have  a  talent  for  putting  together  the  wrong 
colors.  One  spring,  she,  in  some  way,  was 
persuaded  by  another  girl  to  have  her  coat, 
dress  and  hat  all  in  browns  that  harmonized. 
One  can  hardly  imagine  the  change  it  made  in 
the  girl.  She  realized  it.  That  Sunday  in  the 
hall,  I  told  her  very  quietly  that  she  looked 
"dear,"  that  she  must  never  wear  anything 
except  soft  colors  that  harmonized ;  that  I 
loved  to  look  at  her.  She  showed  her  pleasure. 
The  next  January  she  asked  me  one  night  if 
I  thought  dark  blue  would  be  all  right  for  her 
new  suit  if  she  got  "everything  to  match." 
No  one  can  associate  sympathetically  with 
the  girl  in  her  teens  week  after  week  and  not 
be  concerned  about  her  physical  welfare. 
There  are  so  many  pale,  anemic,  tired  girls 
that  move  one's  heart.  Some  work  too  hard. 
Many  live  under  unhygienic  conditions.  Many 
can  not  stand  the  pressure  and  rush  of 
school  and  social  life.  Great  numbers  suffer 
from  improper  food,  and  many  more  because 
they  do  not  get  enough  sleep.  Almost  every 
Sunday  I  hear  some  girl  say  she  "went  some- 
where every  night  last  week."  This  mania  for 
Agoing"  seizes  so  many  of  our  girls  just  when 
they  need  rest  and  natural  pleasures,  the  great 
out-of-doors,  and  early  hours  of  retiring. 
20 


THE      PHYSICAL      SIDE 

So  many  of  our  girls  are  "nervous."  A 
bright,  interesting  eighth  grade  teacher  told  me 
recently  that  she  had  fifty  girls  in  her  class 
and  that  according  to  their  mothers  forty-one 
were  "very  nervous."  It  seemed  to  her  a 
large  proportion  even  for  girls  in  their  early 
teens,  and  she  began  a  quiet  study  of  some  of 
them.  One  of  the  "very  nervous"  girls  who, 
her  mother  thought,  must  be  taken  out  of 
school  for  a  while,  takes  both  piano  and  violin 
lessons,  attends  dancing  school,  goes  to  parties 
now  and  then,  and  rarely  retires  before  ten 
o'clock.  Another  "very  nervous"  girl  takes 
piano  lessons,  goes  to  the  moving  picture 
shows  once  or  twice  a  week,  hates  milk,  can't 
eat  eggs,  doesn't  care  much  for  fruit,  and  is 
extremely  fond  of  candy.  In  each  case  in- 
vestigated there  seemed  to  be  much  outside  of 
school  work  which  could  explain  the  "nervous- 
ness." ~~ 

It  is  most  interesting  to  note  the  gain,  phys- 
ically, made  by  almost  every  girl  in  her  teens 
who  enters  a  good  boarding-school,  where 
plenty  of  exercise,  a  cheerful  atmosphere,  reg- 
ular hours  and  wholesome  food  is  the  rule. 

Just  how  much  the  Sunday-school  teacher 
who  is  a  real  friend  of  the  girl  in  her  teens  can 
help  is  a  question,  but  I  know  of  enough  cases 
where  an  earnest  interview  with  the  father  or 

21 


THE   GIRL   IN    HER  TEENS 

mother  has  resulted  in  better  care  of  the  grow- 
ing girl,  with  more  attention  paid  to  her  food 
and  rest,  to  make  me  sure  that  it  pays  to  at- 
tempt to  help.  If  it  only  means  that  the  girl  in 
her  teens  shall  not  go  to  school  or  to  work 
without  breakfast,  it  pays. 

I  can  almost  hear  some  troubled  teacher 
ask,  "Where  in  the  Sunday-school  hour  is 
there  time  for  this  ?"  It  can  not  be  done  in  a 
Sunday-school  hour  except  incidentally.  But 
those  who  are  at  work  with  girls  in  their 
teens  must  teach  more  than  a  lesson  on  Sun- 
day. They  are  teaching  girls  to  live,  if  they 
have  entered  whole-heartedly  into  the  work./ 

Every  girl  in  her  teens  is  interested  in  her 
physical  self.  The  ways  in  which  she  strives 
to  satisfy  her  curiosity  and  desire  for  knowl- 
edge are  often  pitiful,  often  to  be  deplored. 

From  my  experience  I  am  convinced  that 
anything  which  tends  to  center  her  interest 
upon  the  physical  is  unwise.  For  this  reason 
I  very  much  doubt  the  advisability  of  class 
instruction,  except  in  general  matters  of 
hygiene.  What  the  whole  class  is  inter- 
ested in  they  will  discuss.  It  will  be  the 
main  topic  of  conversation  among  "chums"  as 
they  separate  after  class,  and  the  effect  I  am 
convinced  is  bad,  simply  because  it  centers 
thought  upon  a  subject  which  to  the  girl  in 

22 


THE      PHYSICAL      SIDE 

her  teens  should  not  be  the  chief  interest. 
Then,  too,  the  individuals  in  a  class  vary  so 
much  that  the  instruction  to  be  given  needs 
special  wisdom,  tact  and  comprehensive  knowl- 
edge of  girls  which  not  every  teacher  possesses. 

That  instruction  should  be  given,  and  that 
questions  must  be  answered,  is  true.  A  girl's 
mother  is  the  natural  and  best  agency  through 
which  knowledge  should  come  to  hei£and  the 
Sunday-school  teacher  may  very  easily  enlist 
the  mother's  sympathy,  urge  her  to  be  true  to 
her  daughter's  need,  and  show  her  how  nec- 
essary it  is  that  she  faithfully  instruct  her 
child  in  the  things  she  needs  to  kno;\$P  If  the 
mother  says,  as  is  often  the  case,  that  she 
can't,  that  she  does  not  know  how,  etc.,  then 
the  teacher  may  offer  to  help  with  suggestions, 
with  books,  or,  if  the  mother  asks  her  to  do  so, 
may  talk  with  the  girl  herself.  Such  a  conver- 
sation on  the  part  of  the  teacher  should  never 
be  forced,  but  introduced  naturally  and  easily 
in  some  opportune  moment.  Sometimes,  if 
there  is  real  confidence  and  sympathy  between 
pupil  and  teacher,  the  girl  herself  will  open  the 
way. 

In  a  hundred  ways,  both  in  teaching  and  in 
conversation  with  the  girls,  the  Sunday-school 
teacher  may  show  her^owji^Jrespect  ior— tfrg* 
physical  side  oTtifeTThe  marvel  of  it  all,  and 
"23 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

the  need  on  the  part  of  every  woman  to  obey 
its  unchanging  laws,  from  which,  if  broken, 
there  is  no  escape.  In  scores  of  ways  she  will 
frankly  and  naturally  reveal  to  her  girls  her 
sympathy  with  womanhood  everywhere,  in 
every  walk  of  life,  and  especially  her  respect 
for  mothers,  and  her  love  for  helpless  child- 
hood. 

Girls  learn  so  much  more,  and  the  impres- 
sions made  are  far  deeper,  through  this  almost 
unconscious  influence  of  the  teacher  than 
through  the  "lecture"  or  "lesson."  I  shall 
not  soon  forget  the  impression  made  upon  a 
class  of  girls  of  eighteen  years  of  age  by  the 
preparation  of  a  complete  outfit  to  be  pre- 
sented to  a  poor  woman  whose  child  was  to 
come  into  the  world  in  a  tiny  third-story 
room  amidst  deepest  poverty.  As  one  of  the 
girls  said,  "It  will  be  a  lucky  baby,  after  all, 
with  eight  of  us  to  look  after  it."  Both  teacher 
and  girls  felt  new  bonds  of  sympathy  long 
before  the  last  tiny  garments  were  finished, 
and  the  girls  had  learned  much. 

It  is  not  good  for  girls  in  their  teens,  es- 
pecially in  the  latter  part  of  the  period,  to  be 
closely  associated  with  women  who  are  cyn- 
ical, who  have  forgotten  the  tenderness  of 
their  own  girlhood  dreams,  or  who  are  out  of 
sympathy  with  the  great  fundamentals  of  life. 
24 


THE      PHYSICAL      SIDE 

The  teacher  may  so  easily  reveal,  too,  her 
respect  for  the  conventionalities  of  life.^  In 
her  escape  from  the  narrowing  influences  of 
the  conventionalities  of  older  countries,  the 
American  girl  has  gone  so  far  into  liberty  that 
she  does  not  realize  the  protection  that  lies 
behind  simple  conventionality.  While  it  is 
perfectly  true  that  a  girl  may  travel  alone 
from  one  end  of  this  country  to  the  other" 
with  safety,  it  is  not  true  that  it  is  wise  for 
her  to  do  so.  Fathers  are  beginning  to  realize 
it,  and  daughters  though  not  "in  society"  are 
enjoying  the  assurance  that,  if  obliged  for 
social  or  business  reasons  to  be  out  late,  their 
fathers  will  call  for  them.  It  will  mean  an 
effort  on  the  part  of  the  father,  but  it  brings 
a  reward,  for  his  daughter,  feeling  herself 
guarded  and  protected,  develops  into  a  finer 
type  of  woman. 

The  girl  in  her  teens  is  interested  always  in 
the  influence  of  the  passions  and  emotions 
upon  the  physical  nature,  and  knowledge  given 
in  a  simple  direct  way  is  good  for  her. 

"Why  do  some  people  get  very  pale  and 
others  very  red,  when  they  are  angry?"  asked 
a  fourteen-year-old  girl  one  day. 

"Sometimes    you    tremble    when    you    are 
angry,"  said  another;  "and  you  usually  talk 
very   fast,"   added   a   third.     The   discussion 
25 


THE   GIRL  IN  HER  TEENS 

which  followed  was  interesting  and  helpful. 
They  were  astonished  at  the  reports  made  by 
physicians  and  students  of  the  effect  upon 
digestion  of  angry  words,  or  sullen  silence, 
during  dinner.  '(They  learned  in  a  new  way 
the  value  of  the  temper  controlled,  and  of  self- 
mastery  in  all  lines.  They  were  interested 
enough  to  bring  into  class  instances  of  self- 
control  under  trying  circumstances,  and  of 
calamities  following  complete  loss  of  control 
for  only  a  few  minutes.  I  think  they  realized 
in  a  new  way  the  majesty  of  the  perfect  self- 
control  of  Christ  in  the  most  trying  moments 
of  his  life.  We  talked  over  with  profit 
the  effect  upon  the  physical  life,  of  hurry,  of 
fear,  of  worry  and  useless  anxiety,  and  have 
tried  to  find  why  the  Christ  was  free  from 
them  all.  The  conclusions  reached  by  the 
girls  themselves  have  been  helpful  in  every 
instance. 

As  long  as  we  live,  the  physical  will  be  with 
us ;  it  is  not  to  be  despised,  but  respected ;  not 
to  be  ignored,  but  developed ;  not  to  be  abused, 
but  used.^  It  demands  obedience,  and  exacts 
penalty  when  its  laws  are  broken.  It  is  so 
complicated  that  no  one  can  understand  it. 
We  may  study  and  analyze,  but  how  much  of 
the  physical  is  mental,  and  how  much  of  the 
spiritual  is  physical,  no  one  to-day  is  able  to 
26 


THE      PHYSICAL      SIDE 

say.  Of  this  we  may  be  sure, — the  physical 
side  of  the  girl  in  her  teens  is  a  tremendous 
force  that  must  be  reckoned  with,  and  de- 
mands for  its  fullest  development  and  her 
future  well  being  all  the  sympathy,  patience, 
and  wisdom  that  parents  and  teachers  can 
supply. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE   MENTAL  SIDE 

^ 

The  girl  in  her  teens  does  think.  She  has 
been  called  careless,  thoughtless^  inattentive 
and  a  day-dreamer.  Though  these  things  are 
often  true  of  her,  she  is  on  the  whole  a  thinker. 
Her  day-dreams  are  thoughtful.  In  building 
her  air  castles  she  uses  memory  and  imagina- 
tion, and  sometimes  one  wonders  if  these 
factors  to  which  we  owe  so  much  do  not  get 
as  valuable  training  from  "dreams"  as  from 
algebra.  Certain  it  is  that  many  women  who 
have  helped  make  the  world  a  more  comfort- 
able place  in  which  to  live  laid  plans  for  their 
future  work  on  sweet  spring  days,  or  long 
autumn  afternoons  when  Latin  grammar  faded 
away  in  the  distance,  and  things  vital,  near, 
and  real  came  to  take  its  place. 

When  Lucy  Larcom  stood  by  the  noisy  loom 
in  the  rush  and  whirl  of  the  big  factory,  day- 
dreaming while  her  busy  hands  fulfilled  their 
task,  memory  and  imagination  were  being 
trained,  and  one  morning  the  world  read  the 
day-dream.  At  first  it  was  a  picture  of  flowers 
and  fields  and  cloudless  skies,  then  it  came 
28 


THE      MENTAL     SIDE 

back  to  the  tenements  on  the  narrow  streets 
and  said: 

"If   I   were   a   sunbeam, 

I   know  where   I'd   go, 
Into   lowliest   hovels, 
/      Dark  with  want  and  woe. 
Till   sad   hearts   looked  upward, 

I  would  shine  and  shine. 
Then  they'd  think  of  heaven, 
Their  sweet  home  and  mine." 

This  and  many  another  gem  the  imagination 
of  the  factory  girl  wrought  out  beside  the 
loom. 

The  day-dreams,  the  "castles"  reared  by  the 
imagination  of  girlhood,  must  find  expression, 
and  they  do — in  diaries,  "literary  productions" 
and  poems  at  which  we  sometimes  smile. 

But  who  shall  say  that  the  mental  side  of 
the  girl  in  her  teens  does  not  get  as  much  valu- 
able training  through  the  closely  written  jour* 
nal  pages,  or  the  carefully  wrought  poem 
which  perhaps  no  one  may  ever  see,  as  through 
the  "daily  theme"  or  the  essay  written  ac- 
cording to  an  elaborate  outline,  carefully  criti- 
cized by  the  teacher.  The  ambitions  of  the 
adolescent  girl  along  literary  lines  often  re- 
ceive a  rude  shock  when  her  essay  is  returned 
with  red  lines  drawn  through  what,  to  her, 
are  the  most  effective  adjectives  and  most 
beautiful  descriptions. 

29 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

Many  a  literary  genius  has  been  destroyed 
by  the  red  lines  of  an  unimaginative  instructor. 
But  there  are  some  wise  enough  to  allow  the 
girl  to  express  herself  in  true  adolescent  fash- 
ion, criticizing  only  when  errors  in  punctuation, 
sentence  formation  or  spelling  occur,  and  let- 
ting her  gradually  outgrow  the  glaring  wealth 
of  imagery  that  is  the  right  of  every  girl  in 
her  teens. 

But  the  adolescent  girl  does  not  think  in 
"dreams"  alone.  She  thinks  in  the  hard  terms 
of  the  practical  and  the  every  day.  Her  men- 
tal life,  expanding  and  enlarging,  is  stirred 
to  unusual  activity,  as  is  her  physical  nature, 
and  she  makes  so  many  discoveries  absolutely 
new  to  her  that  she  thinks  them  new  to  all. 
She  gives  information  of  all  sorts  to  her 
family  and  expects  respectful  attention.  She 
knows  more  than  her  mother,  criticizes  her 
father,  gives  advice  to  her  grandmother,  and 
is  willing  to  decide  all  questions  for  the 
younger  members  of  the  family.  She  has  a 
new  idea  of  her  own  importance,  and  sees 
herself  magnified. 

It  seems  but  yesterday  since  she  was  just 
a  little  girl,  willing  to  be  guided,  directed,  ruled 
by  her  elders.  Now  she  resents  the  direct 
command,  persists  in  asking  "why,"  and  is 
not  satisfied  with  "because  I  think  best."  She 
3° 


THE      MENTAL     SIDE 

chafes  under  strict  discipline,  rebels  openly, 
sulks,  or  yields  with  an  air  of  desperate  resig- 
nation when  her  dearest  desires  are  denied. 
She  thinks  she  knows  best.  That  is  her  chief 
trouble.  The  things  she  wants  to  do  seem 
best  to  her, — she  thinks  they  will  mean  her 
real  happiness,  therefore  she  chooses  them. 
That  were  she  allowed  to  follow  her  own 
choice  ten  years  from  now  she  would  sadly 
regret  it  does  not  influence  her  much,  for  the 
now  is  so  near  and  so  desirable. 

I  was  calling  one  evening  in  the  home  of  a 
friend  who  has  a  sixteen-year-old  daughter. 
A  few  moments  after  I  was  seated  she  came 
into  the  room  wearing  a  simple  evening  gown 
of  pale  blue  silk,  her  hair  arranged  in  the 
latest  fashion,  and  her  eyes  dancing  with 
excitement  and  anticipation.  I  could  easily 
pardon  the  look  of  satisfied  pride  upon  the 
faces  of  both  her  father  and  mother.  After 
greeting  me  cordially  she  said,  "Mother,  I  may 
do  it  just  this  time,  mayn't  I  ?  Please,  mother !" 
"Do  what?"  said  the  mother.  "You  know,  the 
carriage.  Harry's  father  gave  him  the  money, 
and  it's  so  much  nicer  than  the  crowded  car." 

"I  told  you  this  afternoon  what  I  thought 
about  it,"  said  the  mother,  "but  you  may  ask 
your  father." 

She  referred  the  matter  to  him.  "Harry" 
3* 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

wanted  to  have  a  carriage  and  drive  home 
after  the  party,  his  father  was  willing  and 
had  given  him  the  money.  And  now  mother 
objected !  All  the  nicest  girls  were  going 
to  do  it,  but  mother  preferred  a  crowded 
street-car!  Supreme  disgust  and  a  sense  of 
injustice  showed  in  voice  and  manner.  Her 
father  smiled,  as  he  said,  "Well,  I  think 
your  mother  is  about  right/'  Still  the  girl 
persisted  until  her  father  said  sternly,  "Mil- 
dred, you  may  do  as  we  wish  or  remain  at 
home."  Sullen  silence  followed,  while  she 
made  preparations  to  go.  As  her  mother 
helped  her  on  with  her  wrap,  she  said  kindly, 
"I'm  so  sorry,  Mildred.  It  is  hard  for  us  to 
deny  you,  but  a  few  years  from  now  you  will 
understand  and  be  grateful." 

The  daughter's  answer  came  quickly: 
"That  is  what  you  always  say,  but  I  know  I'm 
missing  all  the  pleasures  the  other  girls  have." 

The  mother  was  discouraged.  "I  don't 
know  what  to  do  with  Mildred,"  she  said, 
after  her  daughter  had  gone,  "she  seems  to 
have  lost  all  confidence  in  us." 

"No,"  I  said,  "she  hasn't.  She  has  supreme 
confidence  in  herself.  If  you  had  frankly 
told  her  your  reason  for  refusing  her  request, 
or  simply  said  that  it  was  not  the  proper  thing, 
since  you  could  not  furnish  her  with  a  chap- 
32 


THE      MENTAL     SIDE 

eron,  it  might  have  helped.  But  if  you  treat 
her  as  patiently  for  the  next  few  years  as  you 
have  done  to-night,  she  will  come  out  all 
right." 

I  am  sure  she  will.  The  rapid  development 
of  her  mental  life  is  showing  through  her  will. 
The  years  are  coming  when  she  will  need  to 
choose  for  herself.  The  power  to  choose  is 
being  developed  now.  Inexperience  leads  her 
to  make  unwise  choices,  and  so  the  experience 
of  older  and  wiser  people  must  guide  her,  and 
if  necessary  decide  for  her.  But  wherever  it 
is  possible  for  her  to  choose  for  herself,  when- 
ever the  issue  at  stake  is  not  too  great,  the 
wise  parent  and  teacher  will  allow  her  to 
choose,  yes,  even  require  her  to  do  so,  that  the 
power  of  choice  may  be  developed  and  the 
mental  forces  strengthened.  And  when  she 
has  chosen  they  will  help  her  carry  out  her 
choice,  that  she  may  see  the  result  and  judge  of 
its  wisdom,  thus  helping  her  in  the  struggle 
to  develop  both  will  and  judgment. 

^The  time  when  parents  attempted  to  break 
the  will  is  passing.  The  wise  parent  and 
teacher  of  the  girl  in  her  teens  knows  that  she 
needs,  if  her  future  is  to  be  useful  and  happy, 
not  a  Broken  will  but  a  trained  will.  Training 
is  a  slow  and  steady  process  and  requires  un- 
limited patience. 

33 


THE   GIRL    IN   HERTEENS 

The  aim  of  every  one  in  any  way  respon- 
sible for  the  education  of  the  girl  in  her  teens 
is  to  help  her  to  see  the  right  and  desire  it. 
If  that  can  be  done  for  her,  she  has  at  least 

been  started  on  the  road  that  leads  to  safety. 

* 

/This  is  the  time  when  those  who  teach  her 
may  help  her  to  see  the  value  of  promptness, 
absolute  accuracy,  and  dependableness.  When 
she  promises  to  do  a  thing  it  is  the  duty  of  all 
who  teach  her  to  help  her  keep  that  promise. 
But  she  must  always  see  the  value  of  the  thing 
taught.  The  mind  must  be  satisfied  ;  she  must 
know  why.  The  girl  in  her  teens  is  develop- 
ing the  individual  moral  sense,  and  if  the  years 
are  to  bring  strength  of  character  every  open 
avenue  to  the  mind  must  be  used  to  help  in 
constantly  raising  standards  and  impressing 
truth. 

The  awakening  of  the  girl  in  her  teens  to 
new  phases  of  mental  activity  reveals  itself 
or__  reading.     It  is  true  that 


some  girls  before  twelve  read  eagerly  all 
sorts  of  books,  but  most  girls  develop  a 
genuiue  love  for  reading  with  adolescence. 
They  then  become  omnivorous  readers.  When 
one  looks  over  lists  of  "JBooksJ-^Hiave  IFtead" 
prepared  by  high-school  girls  he  is  astonished 
by  the  number  and  variety. 

It  is  most  interesting  to  note  the  books  des- 
34 


THE      MENTAL     SIDE 

ignated  in  personal  conversation  as  "the  dear- 
est story,"  "just  great,"  "dandy,"  "perfectly 
fine,"  "elegant,"  "beautiful,"  and  "the  best 
book  I  have  ever  read."  That  these  books 
have  a  tremendous  influence  on  the  mental  life 
in  forming  a  "taste"  for  literature,  and  fur- 
nishing motives  for  action,  ideals,  and  infor- 
mation, no  one  can  doubt. 

Who  helps  these  girls  to  satisfy  their  hunger 
for  a  "good  book  to  read?"  Many  have  no 
help, — -they  read  what  they  will.  Sometimes 
the  parent  acts  as  guide,  often  the  book  lists 
gotten  out  by  the  city  librarian,  or  graded  lists 
of  books  prepared  by  teachers  in  the  public 
school,  although  many  times  at  just  the  period 
when  most  reading  is  being  done  the  "lists" 
disappear  from  the  schoolroom.  Seldom  does 
the  Sunday-school  teacher  guide  her  girls  in 
their  choice  of  books,  yet  this  is  one  of  the 
most  valuable  and  helpful  things  a  woman  can 
do  for  a  girl. 

One  often  wishes  there  were  more  books  of 
the  right  sort  for  the  girl  in  her  teens.  With 
the  exception  of  the  old  standards  that  remain 
helpful  to  succeeding  generations  there  are 
comparatively  few  books  for  girls  that  are  in- 
teresting, fascinating,  wholesome,  and  free 
from  those  "problems"  on  which  few  women 
and  no  girls  can  dwell  with  profit.  Modern 
.  35 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

writers  have  given  us  a  few  fine,  inspiring 
stories  for  girls,  and  the  teacher  who  seeks 
them  out,  reads  them,  and  then  passes  them  on 
to  her  girls  is  helping  in  a  real  and  definite 
way  to  deepen  and  broaden  character.  All 
teachers  of  girls  are  hoping  that,  now  so  many 
good  books  for  boys  have  been  written,  our 
writers  will  turn  their  attention  to  girls  and 
their  needs. 

JGirls  in  their  teens  need  biography,and  en- 
joy it.  They  need  to  know  fine  women  who 
have  actually  lived.  If  the  lives  of  such 
women  could  be  written  for  girls  they  would 
find  eager  readers.  The  author  of  the  life  of 
Alice  Freeman  Palmer  has  presented  an  in- 
Spiring  and  helpful  gift  to  the  girls  of  all 
time,  and  its  influence  can  never  be  estimated. 
We  need  more  such  books. 

No  one  of  us  would  return  for  a  moment 
to  the  stories  of  heroines  so  good  that  in  the 
last  chapter  they  died  and  went  to  heaven,  but 
we  do  need  books  in  which  girls  and  women 
are  sane,  reasonable,  and  good,  yet  live,  and 
enjoy  living  to  the  full.  The  world  is  full  of 
wholesome,  true,  womanly  women,  and  our 
girls  need  to  know  about  them  in  fact  and  fic- 
tion. 

The  mental  activity  of  the  girl  in  her  teens 
p  reveals  itself  also  in  her  great  desire  to  know. 

3*5- 


THE      MENTAL     SIDE 

During  the  period  of  her  teens  the  girl  so  often 
appears  superior  to  the  boy  mentally.  Some- 
times she  is,  but  more  often  the  seeming  su- 
periority can  be  explained  in  two  ways:  the 
hunger  for  knowledge  and  longing  to  under- 
stand life  come  to  her  earlier  than  to  the  boy ; 
she  desires  to  excel,  and  feels  more  keenly  the 
disgrace  of  low  rank  and  unsatisfactory  prog- 
ress in  her  studies,  which  leads  her  to  de- 
vote more  time  and  conscientious  effort  to 
master  them.  While  her  brother  is  buried 
deep  in  athletics,  she  is  buried  in  dreams,  ro- 
mances and  facts.  She  wants  things  ex- 
plained. After  sixteen,  there  dawns  the  period 
when  she  demands  that  her  teacher  shall  know. 
She  must  have  knowledge.  Some  teachers  of 
girls  in  the  later  teens  hold  their  interest 
through  a  charming  personality,  a  knowledge 
of  the  heart  of  a  girl,  and  a  clever  presenta- 
tion of  lessons.  Still,  such  teachers  are  unable 
oftentimes  to  help  the  girl  in  her  struggle  to 
straighten  out  tangles  of  what  she  calls  " 
and  "knowledge." 

She  asks  with  a  new  earnestness,  "Are  the 
miracles  true?"  "Is  the  Bible  different  from 
other  books  ?"  Only  last  week  a  girl  of  eight- 
een, suffering  with  her  dearest  friend,  whose 
brother  had  been  sentenced  to  a  term  in  prison 
for  gross  intoxication,  said  to  me :  "That  man 
37 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

prays  often  when  he  is  sober  to  be  kept  from 
drinking,  how  can  God  let  him  do  it  when  it 
is  just  killing  his  mother  and  all  the  family? 
I  don't  see  how  it  can  be  true  that  God  loves 
men  when  he  lets  them  be  so  wicked,  and  when 
people  suffer  so,  and  starve  and  die  in  wrecks 
and  fires  and — it's  terrible.  I  know  you  will 
think  I'm  awful,  but  sometimes  I  don't  believe 
in  God  at  all."  Her  voice  trembled,  and  I 
knew  the  hurried  sentences  represented 
months  of  thinking.  I  did  not  consider  her 
"awful."  God  help  her — she  has  looked  the 
old,  old  problem  of  evil  squarely  in  the  face 
for  the  first  time,  and  is  staggered  by  it. 
How  to  help  her  in  this  crisis  we  shall  con- 
sider in  our  discussion  of  the  "Spiritual  Side." 
She  needs  now  more  than  ever  a  teacher 
who  can  understand  her,  who  has  thought 
things  out  for  herself,  who  can  teach  posi- 
tively, who  is  too  near  life  to  worship  creed, 
and  too  large  to  be  dogmatic.  One  so  often 
wishes,  when  looking  into  the  face  of  •  some 
thoughtful  girl,  with  mind  keen,  alert,  active, 
but  perplexed  and  confused  by  knowledge  that 
seems  to  contradict  itself,  for  some  miracle 
by  which  for  a  moment  the  Great  Teacher 
might  come  and  speak  to  her  the  words  that 
made  his  doubting  pupil  say,  "My  Lord  and 
my  God." 

38 


THE      MENTAL      SIDE 

The  mental  activity  of  the  girl  of  to-day 
reveals  itself  in  the  later  teens  by  a  keen  and 
deep  interesjjj^^^  in  the  great 

problems  that  concern  women.  But  a  few 
weeks  since  I  looked  into  the  faces  of  scores 
of  earnest  college  girls,  many  in  their  later 
teens,  who  were  discussing  at  a  week-end  con- 
ference, "The  Individual  and  the  Social  Cri- 
sis." It  was  not  a  mere  discussion.  These 
girls  had  plans,  they  had  facts,  they  were  look- 
ing at  the  question  on  all  sides.  Within  the 
month  I  met  another  group  in  conference. 
They  were  a  "Welfare  Committee"  for  an  or- 
ganization of  working  girls.  They  knew  what 
they  were  talking  about,  they  had  plans,  and 
were  seeking  solutions  for  problems  that 
needed  to  be  solved. 

The  girl  in  her  teen^Js_Ja^di^amer  at  thir- 
teen, seeking  to  realize  her  dreams  in  real  life 
at  nineteen. 

During  those  six  wonderful  years  of  re- 
peated crises,  the  mental  life  of  the  girl  is 
being  shaped  and  determined  by  environment. 
To  some  extent  the  teacher  may  influence  that 
environment,  and  become  a  real  part  of  it. 
It  is  her  privilege  to  furnish  the  imagination, 
through  prose  and  poetry,  with  fields  in  which 
to  wander  afar,  broaden  the  vision  through 
books  of  travel  and  information  which  she 
39 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

may  put  in  the  girl's  way,  increase  her  love  of 
music  and  pictures  through  occasional  concerts 
and  visits  to  the  art  galleries,  and  in  scores  of 
little  ways  open  new  doors  to  the  greater 
realms  of  knowledge  which,  if  unaided,  she 
would  have  passed  by. 

It  is  a  great  thing  to  be  able  to  help  an- 
other mind  to  think  for  itself.  That,  the 
wise  teacher  is  always  striving  to  do.  She 
challenges  her  girls  to  think.  This  is  the 
reason  why  she  wants  the  girl  in  her  teens 
to  know  something  of  the  history  of  the 
church ;  to  be  acquainted  with  the  young  men 
and  women  on  the  mission  field,  and  know 
what  they  are  doing;  to  know  what  the  cities 
are  trying  or  refusing  to  do  for  the  housing  of 
the  poor,  and  for  the  protection  of  women  and 
girls ;  to  know  the  laws  of  home  hygiene,  and 
to  use  her  mental  faculties  to  help  answer  the 
question  of  the  relation  of  the  church  and 
the  individual  under  existing  conditions  in  her 
own  community  and  in  the  world.  The  girl  in 
her  teens  is  interested  most  in  the  very  thing 
in  which  the  Great  Teacher  was  himself  in- 
terested— life,  the  life  of  his  own  day,  and 
he  so  instructed  his  disciples  that  the  eyes  of 
their  understanding  were  opened  and  they  be- 
gan to  think  for  themselves  and  of  their  fellow- 
men. 

40 


THE      MENTAL      SIDE 

We  have  to-day,  in  the  girl  in  her  teens,  who 
in  large  numbers  is  still  in  our  Sunday-schools, 
a  tremendous  mental  force.  Were  it 
awakened  and  developed,  helped  to  see  and 
interpret  life  according  to  the  principles  of 
Jesus,  in  fifty  years  the  church  would  find 
most  of  its  present  problems  solved.  For  hard 
to  realize  as  it  is  when  looking  into  the  faces 
and  training  the  minds  of  the  girls  in  their 
teens  of  to-day,  still  it  is  true  that  we  are  look- 
ing at  and  training  the  women  of  to-morrow, 
yes,  those  who  a  few  years  hence  holding  their 
children  in  their  arms,  shall  decide  all  unknow- 
ing what  the  next  generation  of  men  and 
women  shall  be  and  do. 

To  encourage  the  girl  in  her  teens  to  use  her 
mental  powers  to  the  utmost,  to  help  her  gain 
knowledge  and  self-control,  to  guide  her  in 
her  thinking,  is  the  task  of  every  parent  and 
teacher,  and  it  is  a  task  tremendously  worth 
while. 


41 


CHAPTER  IV- 

THE  SPIRITUAL  SIDE 

All  civilization  begins  in  sensation  and  feel- 
ing. The  most  abstruse  and  abstract  thought 
of  to-day  is  possible  because  ages  and  ages 
ago  men  living  in  caves  were  hungry  and 
sought  food,  were  cold  and  sought  warmth, 
felt  fear  and  sought  protection.  They  con- 
quered in  battle  with  fierce  animals  and  neigh- 
boring tribes,  and  felt  the  joy  of  victory  and 
the  satisfaction  of  possession.  The  "self" 
sensations  and  feelings  are  at  the  foot  of  the 
ladder  of  civilization  by  which  man,  with 
almost  infinite  patience  has  climbed  thus  far. 
But  self  is  not  all.  As  the  ages  passed,  man's 
pleasure  of  protection  included  his  neighbor 
in  his  feeling  and  thought.  Misfortune  evoked 
pity,  and  suffering  called  forth  sympathy,  the 
desire  for  fair  play  for  self  grew  until  it  be- 
came a  sense  of  justice  which  included  the 
other  man,  and  the  moral  sense  developed 
and  was  strengthened  by  experience  through 
the  succeeding  ages. 

From  the  beginning  "the  spirit  of  man 
sought  ever  to  speak."  At  first  he  would  pro- 
42 


THE     SPIRITUAL    SIDE 

pitiate  the  spirits  of  air  and  fire,  the  rulers  of 
earth  and  sea,  the  harvest  and  the  battle, — 
please  them  and  buy  their  favor  that  he  might 
be  happy.  In  weird  chants  and  dances,  in  feast 
days  and  fast  days,  by  sacrifice  and  penance, 
he  endeavored  to  appease  the  spirits  of  his 
gods  and  insure  happiness  for  himself.  Great 
multitudes  of  the  human  race  have  gone  no 
farther.  After  all  the  progress  of  thought 
their  prayers  are  still  intense  appeals  for 
blessing  upon  self  and  self-interests,  and  they 
still  keep  the  feasts  and  fasts,  and  bring  of- 
ferings with  hope  of  personal  reward.  But 
every  century  brings  an  increasing  number  so 
filled  with  the  sense  of  another's  need  that  in 
some  measure  at  least  they  forget  self.  Their 
prayers  are  petitions  for  others, — their  gifts 
are  poured  out  without  thought  of  recompense ; 
the  spiritual  nature  within  them,  awakened  and 
developed,  triumphs  and  manifests  itself  in  a 
thousand  varying  deeds  that  bless  mankind. 

This  spiritual  nature,  which  from  the  be- 
ginning has  sought  after  its  Creator  that  it 
might  worship  him,  is  not  a  thing  apart,  living 
in  a  separate  "house,"  but  rather  a  phase 
of  man's  complexity.  It  depends  for  its 
growth  upon  both  the  physical  and  mental 
sides  of  man's  nature,  and  cannot  be  divorced 
from  them. 

43 


THE   GIRL   IN    HER  TEENS 

At  the  foot  of  the  path  that  reaches  to  the 
very  height  of  spiritual  life,  we  find  feeling 
as  sensation  and  emotion.  The  myriad  sensa- 
tions which  express  themselves  in  bodily  con- 
sciousness through  the  physical,  and  the  emo- 
tions which  find  expression  through  mental 
consciousness,  can  not  escape  their  share  of 
responsibility  for  the  development  of  the 
spiritual  side.  As  year  after  year  he  sees  suc- 
cessive classes  of  children  repeat  the  develop- 
ment of  their  predecessors,  one  stands  in  awe 
and  reverence  before  the  presence  of  laws 
which  seem  universal  in  the  development  of 
child  life.  He  notes  the  days  when  life  means 
food  and  clothing  furnished  by  another.  He 
notes  the  strong  development  of  the  self  in- 
terests to  the  exclusion  of  others.  He  sees 
the  gradual  development  of  the  sense  of  jus- 
tice, of  pity,  of  sympathy.  He  watches  the 
development  of  altruism  in  adolescence.  He 
sees  the  rapid  change  of  body,  mind,  and  spirit, 
and  witnesses  the  struggle  for  control,  some- 
times on  the  part  of  one,  sometimes  the 
other,  until  at  last  physical,  mental  or  spirit- 
ual emerges  in  control  of  a  life.  Or  in  the 
rarer  cases,  where  a  more  perfect  development 
has  come,  all  three  work  together  in  the  effort 
to  make  a  perfectly  balanced  man. 

We  saw  in  our  brief  study  of  the  physical 
44 


THE    SPI  RITUAL     SID  E 

side  that  a  girl  in  her  teens  can  feel.  Her 
whole  being  is  sensitized,  ready  at  a  moment's 
notice  to  respond.  In  our  study  of  the  mental 
side  we  saw  that  she  can  and  does  think,  is 
capable  of  the  heights  and  depths  of  emotion, 
and  is  able  in  a  limited  way  to  make  com- 
parisons and  reach  sane  conclusions. 

As  the  physical  side  of  her  nature  is  awake 
and  the  mental  side  keen,  curious  and  eager, 
so  the  spiritual  side  feels  the  thrill  of  new 
life  and  opens  to  all  the  wealth  of  impression. 
She  is  close  to  the  great  mysteries  of  life,  and 
"whence  came  I,  what  am  I  here  for,  where 
am  I  going/'  press  her  for  answer.  In  her 
early  teens  she  accepts  gladly  the  theories  and 
creeds  of  those  who  teach  her.  There  are 
comparatively  few  "unbelievers"  from  thir- 
teen to  sixteen.  The  average  girl  at  this 
period  is  religious  in  the  truest  sense  of  the 
word.  Her  moral  sense  is  keen,  her  con- 
science is  alive, — she  longs  unspeakably  to 
be  good;  to  overcome  jealousy  and  envy;  to 
be  truthful,  thoughtful  of  others;  and  a  score 
of  minor  virtues  she  longs  to  possess.  Yet 
in  strange  perversity  she  is  often  none  of 
these  things.  She  finds  it  easy  to  pray,  and  a 
song,  a  picture,  a  story  filled  with  deeds  of 
deepest  self-sacrifice,  awakens  immediate  re- 
sponse. She  can  be  appealed  to  through  her 
45 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

emotions,  and  her  deepest  religious  sense 
touched  and  developed.  The  awakening  of 
her  spiritual  nature  thus  through  the  emotions 
is  perfectly  legitimate.  The  appeal  should 
never  be  sensational,  and  never  under  any 
circumstances  awaken  an  hysterical  response. 
Not  tears  but  unbounded  joy  should  be  the 
result  of  her  response  to  an  appeal  to  all  that 
is  best  in  her. 

If  the  Sunday-school  were  equipped  with 
just  the  right  teachers,  and  able  to  so  influence 
parents  and  home  conditions  that  the  girl  in 
her  early  teens  were  regular  in  attendance, 
very  few  would  reach  the  age  of  sixteen  with- 
out having  determined  to  love  and  obey  God 
and  to  live  in  the  world  as  Christ  lived.  Al- 
most all  would  unite  with  the  church,  which 
is  the  visible  expression  of  the  religious  life, 
— and  be  ready  to  throw  themselves  into  its 
work. 

In  all  my  experience  with  Sunday-school 
girls  of  this  period  regular  in  attendance  and 
interested  in  the  work  I  have  found  when  talk- 
ing with  them  that  they  invariably  say,  "I  think 
I  am  a  Christian/'  "I  am  trying  hard  to  be 
good  and  to  be  a  Christian/'  "I  am  willing 
to  sign  the  card,  I  have  been  trying  to  be  2 
Christian  for  a  long  time/'  etc.,  etc.  Then, 
having  so  expressed  themselves,  if  later  I 
46 


THE     SPIRITUAL     SIDE 

talk  over  with  them  the  matter  of  uniting 
with  the  church,  I  find  only  a  few  objections 
repeated  year  after  year  by  successive  classes. 
"My  father  and  mother  think  I  am  too  young," 
"My  father  says  I  would  better  wait  until 
I  know  what  I  am  doing/'  "I  am  afraid  I  am 
not  good  enough/'  and  the  one  most  reluctantly 
expressed,  "If  I  join  the  church  I  am  afraid 

I'll  have  to ,"  then  follow  the  things  which 

perhaps  must  be  given  up.  I  have  yet  to  find 
the  girl  from  thirteen  to  sixteen  who  has  been 
a  regular  attendant  at  Sunday-school  since  pri- 
mary age  who  has  no  desire  to  call  herself  a 
Christian.  The  splendid  devotion  to  duty,  the 
sympathy,  the  service  to  the  world,  the  mar- 
velous love  and  compassion,  the  supreme  sac- 
rifice of  our  Lord,  makes  the  strongest  pos- 
sible appeal  to  the  spiritual  nature  of  the  girl. 
We  may  confidently  expect  her  to  respond,  and 
she  does. 

But  if  the  girl  has  been  irregular  in  at- 
tendance, has  lost  interest  in  class  or  teacher, 
is  permitted  to  enjoy  the  stimulus  of  social  life 
while  too  young,  comes  to  church  only  on  spe- 
cial occasions,  has  little  or  no  definite  moral 
instruction  at  home,  and  does  not  come  into 
close  touch  with  rich  spiritual  life,  she  will 
drift  through  the  years  of  adolescence  with 
her  spiritual  nature  undeveloped  and  express- 
47 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

ing  itself  only  in  vague  longings  unsatisfied. 
The  chances  are  that  such  a  girl  will  never 
have  anything  but  a  superficial  interest  either 
in  her  own  development  or  the  vital  life  of  the 
church  expressed  in  its  various  agencies. 

Two  years  ago,  at  a  conference,  a  girl  of 
sixteen  from  a  fashionable  boarding-school, 
coming  from  a  home  where  fads  and  fashions 
rule,  said  to  me,  "I  never  knew  Christ  was  so 
wonderful,  but  then  I  have  never  thought 
much  about  it,  though  I  go  to  morning  service 
in  the  winter.  I  have  never  met  women  and 
girls  like  those  I  have  seen  this  week;  they 
are  so  interesting, — they  are  doing  so  many 
things  to  help  people, — they  seem  to  love  to 
live.  I  don't  want  to  live  a  mean,  selfish  kind 
of  life.  I  am  going  back  to  school  for  my 
last  year.  What  can  I  do  ?  How  can  I  help  ?" 
I  have  met  many  girls  of  whom  she  is  the 
type.  Little  is  being  done  for  the  spiritual 
side  of  their  natures.  The  Sunday-school  at 
present  does  not  reach  them  to  any  great  ex- 
tent. One  of  the  greatest  problems  facing  the 
fashionable  church  is  how  to  reach  in  any 
way  girls  in  their  teens  who  are  members  of  its 
congregation.  Such  girls  with  their  abundance 
of  life  have  at  least  a  right  to  those  things 
offered  in  the  Sunday-school  which  will  mean 
the  awakening  and  developing  of  the  spirit. 
48 


THE     SPIRITUAL     SIDE 

They  need  teachers  especially  equipped  in 
every  way  to  meet  them  and  help  them.  To 
find  such  teachers  is  one  of  the  problems 
that  must  be  met  within  the  next  few  years. 
Perhaps  we  may  look  confidently  for  help  be- 
fore long  to  the  girls  of  culture  and  refinement 
now  in  our  colleges  hard  at  work  upon  every 
kind  of  problem  dealing  with  the  development 
of  a  better  life  for  girls  and  women.  For 
these  girls  are  beginning  to  look  at  the  Sun- 
day-school seriously  as  the  means  of  bring- 
ing moral  and  religious  education  to  girls  of 
all  classes,  and  are  asking  how  they  may  best 
equip  themselves  for  service  in  its  various  de- 
partments. 

The  problem  of  the  other  girl  is  just  as 
great.  She  works  all  the  week,  and  when  on 
Sunday  morning  she  is  tired,  the  family  sym- 
pathize. She  gradually  drops  out  of  Sunday- 
school,  is  not  able  because  of  her  long  hours 
to  enter  into  the  work  of  the  church,  does 
not  come  into  contact  with  any  vitalizing  spir- 
itual force,  and  slowly  this  part  of  her  nature, 
lacking  food  and  stimulus,  begins  to  die.  She 
spends  Sunday  afternoon  and  evening  socially, 
and  enters  upon  the  new  week's  work  with  no 
uplift  of  soul  and  spirit  to  help  her  when 
temptations  come. 

She  needs  a  real  teacher,  sympathetic  and 
49 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

appreciative,  to  hold  her  during  the  first  years 
of  her  working  life.  One  who  can  make  the 
class  a  social  factor,  and  by  her  effort  and 
personality  make  the  Sunday-school  hour  in- 
teresting enough  to  insure  attendance.  Then 
the  teacher  has  an  opportunity  at  least  to  bring 
the  girl  into  contact  with  Christ,  and  through 
instruction  to  feed  and  develop  her  spiritual 
nature  until  it  is  ready  through  exercise  to 
develop  itself. 

The  spiritual  nature  needs  food  as  does  the^ 
physical.  If  the  physical  life  is  poorly  nour- 
ished in  this  time  of  the  most  rapid  develop- 
ment, a  loss  of  vitality  and  power  is  the  in- 
evitable result.  The  same  is  true  of  the  men- 
tal life.  There  must  be  healthful,  attractive, 
abundant  food  for  interesting,  enjoyable 
thought.  And  just  as  surely  the  spiritual  life, 
unless  the  emotions  and  moral  sense  are  nour- 
ished, will  yield  to  slow  paralysis  or  run  into 
wrong  and  wasteful  channels. 

But  there  comes  a  time  in  the  spiritual  ex- 
perience of  the  girl,  usually  about  sixteen, 
when  she  wants  to  do  something  to  express 
the  longing  to  give  herself  which  is  growing 
more  intense  each  year.  If  the  Sunday-school 
and  church  are  together  able  to  provide  her 
with  work  she  is  fairly  safe  for  the  next  few 
years.  The  work  will  mean  definite  interest, 
5° 


THE    SPIRITUAL    SIDE 

will  call  for  some  sacrifice,  and  will  bring 
the  satisfaction  of  accomplishment.  The  spir- 
itual side  of  her  nature  will  find  in  this  way 
opportunity  for  immediate  expression,  and  we 
must  never  let  the  fact  escape  us  that  without 
opportunity  for  expression  abundant  life  is 
impossible. 

Sooner  or  later  there  is  bound  to  come  to 
the  average  girl  in  her  teens  a  period  of 
doubting,  anxious  questioning.  Most  often 
it  appears  at  the  very  end  of  the  period.  The 
outcome  of  this  longer  or  shorter  period  of 
turmoil  in  thought  may  be  a  much  broader, 
deeper  faith  in  the  Christian  ideals  and  the 
realities  of  life,  or  it  may  be  a  drifting  away 
from  the  church  and  the  loss  of  definite  faith 
in  anything. 

There  are  in  the  world  many  more  people 
who  will  not  do  than  who  will  not  believe,,  but 
a  large  and  growing  number  of  young  women 
are  questioning,  doubting,  and  finally  deciding 
that  we  can  not  know,  and  that  the  faith  of 
our  childhood  is  without  reasonable  founda- 
tion. Some  of  these  will  seek  satisfaction  for 
the  spiritual  nature  in  later  years  in  all  sorts 
of  "isms,"  "ists,"  and  cults;  some  will  drop 
all  definite  terms  of  faith  and  find  a  measure 
of  satisfaction  in  educational  work  among  the 
poor.  Some  will  grow  hard  and  cynical,  lose 


THE   GIRL   IN    HER  TEENS 

all  interest  in  any  visible  form  of  religion, 
and  give  themselves  over  to  a  good  time.  The 
doubters  and  questioners  are  often  thoughtful, 
sincere  young  people,  with  mental  ability 
of  the  best  sort  and  high  moral  sense,  and 
every  Sunday-school  teacher  who  has  any  in- 
fluence with  them  must  put  forth  every  pos- 
sible effort  to  save  them,  for  their  own  sake 
and  that  of  the  world.  (For  the  world  can  ill 
afford  to  lose  its  women  of  faith. 

Occasionally,  the  girl  who  asks  questions 
is  not  sincere  in  her  desire  to  find  answers; 
she  just  wants  to  argue.  Argument  with  such 
a  girl  is  not  helpful.  As  a  rule,  doubts  ex- 
pressed grow  stronger,  l^n  talking  with  a 
girl  who  wants  to  tell  all  that  she  doubts,  I 
have  found  it  helpful  to  lead  her  to  make 
positive  statements  as  to  what  she  believes, 
and  urge  her  if  she  feels  that  she  must  part 
with  her  old  faith  to  start  a  new  one  with 
what  she  does  believe.  To  treat  her  as 
"wicked,"  or  to  be  "shocked"  by  her  expres- 
sion of  unbelief  is  exceedingly  unwise.  Pos- 
itive teaching,  free  from  dogmatism,  along  the 
line  where  her  doubts  seem  to  lead  will  help 
to  strengthen  her,  and  work  with  actual  prob- 
lems of  a  social  and  altruistic  nature  will  act 
as  a  good  balance.  x  Those  who  are  at  work 
with  actual  life  problems  have  invariably  the 
52 


THE     SPIRITUAL     SIDE 

strongest  and  broadest  faith  because  they  come 
close  to  humanity  and  see  its  worth  as  well  as 
its  weakness,  and  in  the  long  run  can  not  ex- 
plain what  they  see  without  the  presence  of 
God  in  the  world,  nor  help  the  deep  needs 
they  realize  without  the  aid  of  Christ. 

If  the  girl  who  questions  is  sincere,  and  is 
troubled  and  unhappy  because  she  can  not 
believe,  she  deserves  and  should  have  the  deep- 
est sympathy.  The  teacher  to  whom  she  comes 
for  help  is  to  be  envied,  for  she  has  the  great 
privilege  of  an  opportunity  to  help  her  see. 

Oftentimes  it  is  such  a  little  thing  that 
hides  from  her  the  whole  great  range  of 
Christian  thought.  I  shall  remember  always 
the  little  hill  that  hid  my  view  of  the  White 
Mountains  I  had  made  such  a  sacrifice  to  see. 
I  had  reached  my  stopping-place  late  at  night, 
in  the  rain,  and  when  morning  came  with  a 
flood  of  sunshine  I  went  eagerly  forth  to  catch 
a  first  glimpse  of  the  mountains.  They  were 
nowhere  in  sight.  A  quiet  country  road, 
shaded  by  tall  trees,  and  a  long,  low  range 
of  hills  was  all  I  saw.  Deep  disappointment 
filled  my  soul.  I  determined  to  go  back.  Be- 
fore noon  my  companion  climbed  the  hill  op- 
posite the  house  and  beckoned  eagerly  for  me 
to  follow.  I  shall  never  forget  what  I  saw ! 
There  they  were,  clear,  blue,  reaching  up  to 
53 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

the  bluer  sky.  How  I  loved  them  that  sum- 
mer,— touched  with  fire  at  sunset,  purple  and 
gold  in  the  deepening  twilight,  soft  and  far 
away  in  the  early  morning  mist;  and  when 
clouds  shut  them  in,  hid  them  from  sight,  I 
knew  they  were  there,  calm,  still,  immovable ! 
I  had  seen  them.  Yet  for  a  whole  morning 
a  little  hill  shut  them  from  my  vision,  and  I 
had  concluded  that  some  one  had  deceived 
me,  that  from  the  little  town  they  could  not  be 
seen. 

The  greatest  power  of  the  teacher  is  that  of 
beckoning  to  the  pupil  that  he  may  follow, 
helping  him  to  climb  the  little  hills,  that  he 
may  open  his  eyes  and  see.  iThe  mental  ques- 
tions must  be  answered  as  far  as  possible. 
The  difficulty  in  the  way  must  be  surmounted. 
The  hill  must  be  climbed.  If  the  teacher  feels 
that  she  can  not  meet  the  task  herself,  friends 
and  books  may  help.  The  girl  usually  doubts 
the  miracles ;  doubts  the  deity  of  Christ,  thinks 
the  Bible  is  not  different  from  other  books, 
ask  the  old,  old  question,  "If  a  man  die, 
how  can  he  live  again?"  She  questions  the 
existence  of  a  God  of  power  in  a  world  where 
so  much  evil  and  misery  abound;  says  the 
foundation  of  everything  is  gone,  and  that 
she  is  wretched  and  unhappy. 

It  seems  to  me  a  most  helpful  thing  to  make 
54 


THE     SPIRITUAL    SIDE 

her  feel  that  all  thoughtful  men  and  women 
have  at  some  time  in  their  experience  asked 
these  questions.  Both  the  teacher  and  the  girl 
must  accept  the  fact  of  mystery, — that  there 
is  much  that  we  cannot  hope  to  know,  many 
laws  of  mind  and  matter  of  which  we  know 
just  a  little,  and  many  more  of  which  we  know 
nothing.  Mystery  is  a  fact.  That  the  spirit- 
ual sense  can  reach  into  a  realm  where  the 
mental  faculties  cannot  follow,  and  that  the 
spirit  of  man  can  perceive  what  the  mind  alone 
cannot  comprehend,  we  have  a  right  to  believe. 
When  so  much  has  been  acknowledged  the 
teacher  may  tell  her  pupil  what  she  personally 
believes  about  the  disputed  questions,  and  what 
the  scholars  of  the  world  believe  on  both 
sides  of  the  question.  (.The  teacher's  belief  is 
often  the  strongest  argument,  especially  if 
she  has  met  the  questions,  found  an  answer, 
and  her  own  faith  is  positive,  sane  and  strong. 
But  if  the  teacher  meets  the  troubled,  anxious 
mental  state  of  the  girl  with  dogmatic  argu- 
ment, insisting  upon  the  definite  phraseology 
of  some  creed,  she  will  most  certainly  fail 
to  help.  What  we  want  to  do  is  not  to  in- 
culcate a  creed,  but  to  help  a  girl  to  come  into 
living,  vital  touch  with  her  Maker,  that  she 
may  live  with  confidence  and  be  a  help  in  the 
world. 

55 


I  have 

^2*\  said  t 

trdietf 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

In  time  she  will  find  the  creed  that  expresses 
for  her  in  the  most  satisfactory  way  what  she 
has  come  to  believe. 

One  of  the  most  keen  and  interesting  girls 
I  have  ever  met,  a  junior  in  college  at  nineteen, 
said  to  me  after  stating  all  that  she  could  not 
e  and  why,  —  "Can't  I  believe  that  Christ 
was  the  finest  man  that  ever  lived,  and  try 
to  live  and  work  in  the  world  as  he  did  ?  I 
can't  believe  anything  else."  "Yes,"  I  said, 
"that  is  true,  believe  that.  I  think  he  was 
more,  but  start  there.  Do  all  you  have  planned 
to  help  the  needy,  but  don't  forget  to  read 
again  and  again  what  he  said  about  himself 
and  what  those  who  have  served  the  world 
most  fearlessly  and  faithfully  say  of  him." 

Two  years  later  at  the  conference  she  told  me 
she  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  "what  he 
did  and  said  and  his  present  influence  in  the 
world  can't  be  explained  unless  he  was  in  a 
sense  different  from  ourselves,  divine."  This 
was  her  conclusion,  reached  by  thought  and 
study.  It  was  worth  much  more  than  any 
insistence  two  years  before  that  she  believe  as 
I  did. 

The  way  to  help  most  effectually  the  girl 
who  doubts,  so  far  as  my  experience  has  gone, 
is  to  help  her  to  see  that  she  can  start,  stand- 
ing firmly  on  what  she  believes,  and  then  to 

56 


THE     SPIRITUAL     SIDE 

help  her  faith  grow  by  giving  her  work  to 
do  and  by  putting  in  her  way  books  that  give 
constructive  teachings.  Then  one  may  supply 
her  with  stories  of  those  who  have  lived  what 
they  believe,  and  if  possible  bring  her  into  con- 
tact with  fine,  sane  men  and  women  of  strong 
faith  who  love  and  enjoy  life. 

Sometimes  all  the  doubts  and  questionings 
come  because  life  is  so  hard  and  seems  so 
unfair  and  unjust.  Then  the  troubled  girl 
needs  to  know  just  one  thing — "God  is  love"; 
and  only  the  teacher  who  loves  can  help  her, 
— she  will  know  how. 

Nothing  can  so  stimulate  the  teacher's  own 
faith  as  to  be  brought,  year  after  year,  face 
to  face  with  world-wide  questions  hurled  at 
her  from  the  lips  of  girls  in  their  later  teens. 
She  learns  at  last  to  anticipate  the  time  when 
doubts  will  trouble  by  giving  during  the  early 
teens  definite  constructive  teaching  that  will 
strengthen  faith  and  deepen  the  spiritual  sense. 

The  girl  in  her  teens  is  a  worshiper  of  the 
ideal,  and  the  teacher's  business  is  to  furnish 
her  with  ideals  so  beautiful,  so  strong  and  so 
desirable  that  with  irresistible  power  they  woo 
her  until  she  is  ready  to  leave  all  and  follow. 
If  she  is  possessed  by  a  great  ideal  nothing 
is  too  difficult  for  her  to  do,  no  price  is  too  high 
to  pay  in  the  effort  to  realize  it.  Ideals  are 
57 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

the  things  in  life  most  real,  for  they  determine 
action. , 

In  impressing  high  ideals  upon  mind  and 
spirit  the  teacher  of  girls  in  their  teens  has 
advantages  over  those  of  any  other  period. 
All  nature  is  ready  to  help,  the  wealth  of 
emotion  waits  to  be  stirred  to  action,  the  spirit 
waits  to  be  led. 

If  the  spirit  of  the  teacher  is  to  lead,  it 
must  itself  be  led.  It  must  be  dominated  by 
great  ideals. 

The  girl  in  her  teens  needs  a  teacher  whose 
deepest  longings  are  not  all  satisfied — then 
she  understands.  She  needs  a  teacher  who 
is  not  afraid  to  let  her  emotions  speak — who 
knows  that  the  greatest  deeds  possible  to  man 
have  their  birth  in  the  emotions.  She  needs  a 
teacher  who  sees  amid  all  the  joys  and  real 
pleasures  of  the  world,  as  well  as  amid  the 
petty  cares  and  dark  and  puzzling  problems 
which  are  our  common  lot,  the  Spirit  of  her 
Creator  working  out  in  man  for  ultimate  good 
the  great  plan  of  which  she  is  a  part. 

Such  a  teacher  can  open  the  eyes  of  her 
girls  and  help  them  to  see  the  Father  for  whom 
the  human  spirit  is  ever  seeking — and  will  not 
be  satisfied  until  it  finds. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   SOCIAL  SIDE 

I  have  been  spending  the  day  with  adoles- 
cence, surrounded  by  boys  and  girls  in  their 
teens  and  young  men  and  women  just  outside. 
It  is  now  the  evening  of  Memorial  Day,  and 
I  have  spent  most  of  the  day  at  the  popular 
pleasure  resort  just  outside  the  city.  My  com- 
panion, a  young  woman  just  out  of  her  teens, 
had  taken  her  holiday  to  come  to  the  normal 
school  to  arrange  for  entrance  in  the  fall.  She 
has  worked  hard  for  two  years,  saved  her 
money,  and  now  plans  to  take  a  full  course  at 
the  school  to  fit  herself  to  become  an  expert 
teacher  in  China.  She  wanted  to  spend  the 
rest  of  the  day  with  me  and  talk  about  it,  and  I 

took  her  to  W. ,  that  we  might  enjoy  the 

out-of-doors.  We  sat  in  a  secluded  corner  of 
the  big  open  dining-room,  and  during  dinner 
she  talked  of  China's  need,  of  the  great  oppor- 
tunity,— hurled  facts  about  the  darkness  of 
China  at  me  until  I  gazed  at  the  animated 
encyclopaedia  in  astonishment.  Her  face 
glowed  with  enthusiasm ;  it  is  a  sweet  face, 
girlish  and  eager,  and  I  could  but  wonder  as  I 

59 
V 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

looked  at  her  how  China's  need  had  gotten 
such  a  hold  upon  her. 

While  she  seemed  for  a  few  moments  lost  • 
in  thought,  my  eyes  wandered  over  the  room 
crowded  with  youth.  All  sorts  and  conditions 
were  there,  but  all  young.  It  was  Memorial 
Day,  but  they  had  not  waited  to  see  the  short 
procession  of  those  who  still  remain  to  us  of 
the  hundreds  who  went  out  with  their  lives 
in  their  hands  at  the  country's  bidding.  The 
procession  and  all  it  signifies  meant  little  to 
them.  They  were  jolly,  happy,  light-hearted, 
rough  and  very  crude,  and  yet — they  were 
just  the  ones  who,  if  the  country  should  call 
again,  would  answer;  the  boys  promptly,  will- 
ingly, offering  their  lives,  the  girls  laying  their 
hearts  on  the  altar  of  their  country's  needL 
But  to-day  was  just  a  holiday.  At  the  table 
near  us  was  a  group  of  four,  none  over 
seventeen.  The  discussion  and  final  ordering 
of  the  dinner  was  most  interesting.  They 
talked  over  prices,  too,  with  great  frankness, 
"That's  too  much/'  and  "we  don't  need  cof- 
fee, that  will  take  ten  cents  off  for  each  of  us." 
I  have  seldom  seen  four  people  enjoy  a  dinner 
as  they  did.  The  girls'  dresses  manifested  the 
effort  to  attain  "the  latest  thing,"  and  the 
boys  were  not  behind.  When  they  left  the 
dining-room  and  walked  down  toward  the 
60 


THE      SOCIAL      SIDE 

boat-house  they  tried  to  look  so  unconcerned! 
How  they  had  saved  for  this  day!  This  one 
little  day!  At  every  table  were  groups  just 
as  interesting.  The  grounds  were  crowded 
with  other  groups,  laughing  and  shouting  and 
joking.  The  jokes  no  one  save  themselves 
could  appreciate.  The  skating  rink  was 
crowded — the  dancing  pavilion — the  open  air 
theater — every  incoming  trolley  brought  more 
intent  upon  having  "a  good  time."  I  forgot 
China  until  a  direct  question  brought  me  back. 
Here  she  was, — my  eager,  intense,  enthusiastic 
girl, — looking  forward  with  joy  to  China  with 
its  crushing  weight  of  ignorance,  its  impos- 
sible language  and  its  almond-eyed  people 
neither  asking  nor  desiring  to  be  helped! 
What  has  made  the  difference  between  her  and 
those  all  about  me?  Before  I  could  answer 
her  question  or  my  own,  three  automobiles 
passed,  filled  with  laughing  girls  and  boys, 
all  in  their  teens.  Their  faces  were  different 
from  those  in  the  grove,— their  laughter  more 
musical, — the  automobiles  bore  their  coun- 
try's flag,  the  girls  wore  flowers.  I  knew 
some  of  the  faces — it  was  a  "house  party," 
and  they  were  off  for  a  "good  time." 

Suddenly  it  surged  over  me  that  this  was  but 
one  little  spot  in  the  great  country — and  the 
rush  of  the  other  thousands,  the  shop  girls, 
61 


THE   GIRL   IN   HERTEENS 

clerks,  the  office  girls,  the  students,  all  in  search 
of  a  good  time  oppressed  me,  and  before  my 
mind  hurried  back  to  a  Chinese  kindergarten, 
my  heart  cried,  "Oh,  Lord,  how  shall  the 
world  play  with  real  pleasure  and  profit  ?"  Is 
this  the  way?  I  heard  no  answer.  The  prob- 
lem is  too  big  for  me,  yet  I  cannot  let  it  alone, 
for  the  world  must  play,  and  always  the  most 
eager  players  are  young, — and  always  the  girl 
in  her  teens  is  the  center  of  the  game. 

Man  is  social.  He  must  have  companion- 
ships and  pleasures  in  common  with  his  kind. 
Only  when  physically  deficient,  mentally  de- 
formed, abnormal,  does  he  become  anti-social. 
This  is  true  all  through  life  and  especially  true 
in  adolescence  when  nature  is  most  keenly 
conscious  of  elemental  powers  and  passions. 

It  is  true  that  the  girl  in  her  teens  is  often 
alone.  Alone  she  dreams  her  day-dreams, 
writes  her  poems,  floods  herJmagination  with 
all  the  things  that  are  to  be.  (  In  common  with 
all  humanity  she  meets  her  deepest  experiences 
alone. :  Yesterday  a  girl  of  nineteen  tried 
to  tell  me  of  the  happiness  her  engagement  to 
a  fine,  strong  man  had  brought  to  her.  She 
said,  "all  that  it  means  can't  be  said."  Last 
week  a  girl  of  eighteen  tried  to  tell  out  all  the 
loneliness  and  crushing  disappointment  her 
mother's  death  had  brought,  but  she  ended  her 
62 


THE       SOCIAL       SIDE 

appeal  for  help  with  the  old  cry,  "no  one  can 
really  help,  I've  just  got  to  bear  it."  Before 
the  teens  have  passed  so  many  girls  learn  that 
great  joy  and  great  sorrow  must  be  met  alone. 

But  for  the  common  life  of  the  every  day, 
man  lives  with  others.  He  can  neither  work 
alone  nor  play  alone,  and  with  adolescence 
comes  the  realization  of  it  sweeping  into  the 
life.  "The  gang/'  "our  crowd,"  "outset," 
work  and  play  together. 

The  girl  who  loves  and  seeks  solitude  con- 
tinually is  ill  mentally,  physically,  or  spirit- 
ually, and  needs  watchful,  Sympathetic  care, 
which  shall  discover  the  cause  of  her  morbid- 
ness and  help  her  to  escape  from  it. 

Environment  fixes  largely  the  companions 
of  the  girl,  and  her  place  in  the  social  scale 
predetermines  to  some  extent  how  she  shall 
play.  If  she  is  in  a  home  where  the  family  is 
closely  related  to  the  church  in  all  departments 
of  its  active  work  and  life  the  church  becomes 
her  natural  social  center.  Its  entertainments, 
suppers,  young  people's  socials,  etc.,  furnish  the 
means  for  her  amusement  and  the  place  where 
she  may  form  friendships.  If  she  is  a  working 
girl  boarding  in  a  strange  city  or  living  in  a 
home  in  no  way  connected  with  the  church, 
unless  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  through  the  gymnasium 
or  other  classes  reaches  her,  where  shall  she 

63 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

find  her  social  center  where  she  may  enjoy  the 
society  of  other  young  people,  form  friend- 
ships and  have  a  good  time?  In  summer  the 
public  parks  answer  that  question.  In  winter, 
the  skating  rink,  "the  dancing  party/'  the  mov- 
ing picture  show. 

If  the  girl  lives  in  a  happy  home  surrounded 
by  wealth,  together  with  culture  and  refine- 
ment, her  social  life  will  be  guided  and  guarded 
during  her  teens  and  she  will  be  helped  to  have 
a  good  time.  If  she  be  that  happiest  of  all  girls, 
the  one  whose  own  home  is  the  social  center, 
where  music,  games  and  fun  abound,  and 
where  friends  are  always  welcome,  she  is  safe. 
Such  homes  might  solve  the  whole  problem, 
but  there  are  not  enough. 

When  the  teacher  looks  seriously  at  the 
social  side  of  her  girls  in  their  teens  and 
realizes  the  craving  of  the  whole  nature  for 
companionship,  laughter  and  fun,  she  finds  it 
hard  to  say  "Don't"  even  to  the  things  of  which 
she  does  not  personally  approve,  because  she 
must  meet  the  question  clear  and  frank,  "What 
can  I  do  then?"  That  question  has  been 
answered,  so  far  as  the  church  is  concerned, 
only  here  and  there.  Some  splendid  and  suc- 
cessful attempts  have  been  made  that  give  us 
hope  for  the  future. 

Most  Sunday-school  teachers  of  girls  in  their 
64 


THE       SOCIAL       SIDE 

teens  have  awakened  recently  to  the  fact  that 
unless  the  demands  of  the  social  side  be  sat- 
isfied in  a  sane,  healthful  way,  the  girl's  spirit- 
ual nature  suffers  and  the  mental  and  physical 
as  well. 

When  once  the  teacher  really  sees  it  she  can 
no  longer  be  content  to  meet  the  interested 
members  of  her  class  just  an  hour  on  Sunday, 
to  discuss  the  lesson  of  the  day.  The  crowded 
parks,  the  trolleys,  the  "parties,"  the  call  of  the 
great  demanding  whirl  of  amusements  from 
Sunday  to  Sunday,  presses  upon  her  soul.  She 
learns  how  her  girls  spend  the  week  end  and 
the  evenings  and  then  she  throws  herself,  her 
knowledge,  her  skill,  her  time,  into  the  scales, 
hoping  where  she  finds  girls  in  the  danger 
zone  to  turn  the  balance  in  favor  of  clean, 
safe,  sane  pleasure. 

Any  teacher  willing  to  make  a  little  in- 
vestigation will  be  surprised  to  learn  how  many 
of  the  girls  enjoying  the  kind  of  amusements 
which  do  not  make  for  sound  moral  health, 
were  at  ten  or  twelve  regular  members  of  the 
Sunday-school,  and  how  many  still  come  oc- 
casionally. 

My  observation  the  past  few  years  of  the 
social  side  of  the  girl  in  her  teens,  and  espe- 
cially the  girl  who  has  left  school,  has  made  me 
feel  that  if  the  opportunity  to  choose  came  to 
.65 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

me  as  to  Solomon,  I  would  rather  have  the 
knowledge  and  power  to  give  the  young  people 
of  to-day  sane,  safe  amusement  than  anything 
else  I  know. 

The  social  side  of  the  girl  reveals  itself  not 
only  in  the  desire  to  have  a  good  time,  but  in 
the  deep  and  ardent  friendships  formed  during 
the  teen  period. 

While  she  enjoys  to  the  full  the  society 
of  the  group,  the  girl  in  her  teens  invariably 
has  a  "dearest  friend,"  who  shares  her  joys, 
sorrows  and  confidences.  This  tendency  be- 
comes especially  evident  at  sixteen  and  be- 
comes more  marked  at  the  latter  part  of  the 
period. 

These  friendships  may  be  the  source  of 
greatest  blessings  or  may  mean  the  lowering 
of  the  whole  tone  of  moral  life.  Both  mother 
and  teacher  need  to  observe  carefully  the 
formation  of  friendships  and  be  sure  to  en- 
courage only  the  helpful  ones.  (Public  school 
teachers  of  experience  can  all  testify  to  the 
rapid  changes  in  girls  which  so  often  follow 
the  development  of  a  deep  friendship. 

I  remember  a  girl  of  sixteen,  dreamy, 
imaginative,  and  so  much  interested  in  her 
boy  companions  that  lessons,  home  interests, 
and  everything  else  were  sacrificed.  What  to 
do  with  her,  and  what  interests  to  substitute, 
66 


THE       SOCIAL      SIDE 

were  questions  that  both  mother  and  teacher 
failed  to  solve.  At  a  most  opportune  time  a 
"new  girl"  moved  into  the  neighborhood  and 
entered  school.  She  was  practical,  attractive, 
a  good  scholar,  greatly  interested  in  outdoor 
athletics.  Because  they  were  neighbors,  the 
two  girls  were  thrown  much  together.  The 
companionship  deepened  into  friendship. 
Soon  the  dreamy  sixteen-year-old  was  playing 
tennis  on  summer  afternoons,  and  reading 
aloud  in  the  hammock  afterward  to  rest. 
When  winter  came  she  suddenly  decided  that 
school  and  study  were  worth  while,  brought 
up  all  her  averages,  and  made  up  her  mind  to 
try  for  college.  Skating  and  the  gymnasium 
made  her  a  new  girl.  And  all  this  transfor- 
mation, fortunately  for  her  good,  came  natu- 
rally and  very  rapidly  through  the  influence  of 
her  companion.  It  comes  almost  as  quickly  in 
the  other  direction.  Nothing  can  be  more 
helpful  to  the  shy,  timid,  self-conscious  girl 
than  the  companionship  of  one  who  will  en- 
courage her  and  help  her  take  her  place  with 
others  in  the  social  life  of  which  she  is  a  part. 
Some  of  the  bitterest  suffering  known  to 
girls  in  their  teens  comes  because  they  are 
"left  out"  and  must  go  "alone."  The  misery 
of  being  left  to  oneself  is  registered  in  that 
familiar  sentence,  "Oh,  I  don't  want  to  go 
67 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

alone  1"  The  girl  in  her  teens  needs  a  "chum," 
a  "best  friend/'  a  companion,  and  anything 
that  the  teacher  can  do  to  aid  in  the  formation 
of  helpful  friendships  is  worth  while,  for  the 
friends  loyal  and  true  through  the  teen  age 
are  the  ones  who  in  later  years,  when  the  need 
is  deeper  and  friendships  are  tested,  stand  by. 
That  there  should  be  some  way  and  place  in 
which,  surrounded  by  a  Christian  environment 
that  makes  for  righteousness,  girls  in  their 
late  teens  and  just  outside,  who  have  no 
homes,  or  homes  only  in  name,  can  meet  and 
learn  to  know  young  men  of  the  right  sort  is 
evident  to  all  who  have  even  considered  the 
matter. 

When  the  Great  Teacher  was  here  no  need 
escaped  his  notice.  All  that  he  taught  and  did 
was  in  response  to  need.  Many  of  the  teachers 
of  to-day  are  earnestly  asking  how  far  they 
can  follow  him  in  this  great  principle  of  his 
life. 

When  as  teachers,  interested  in  what  we  call 
the  deepest  things  in  the  girl's  life,  we  are 
sometimes  impatient  with  her  light-hearted- 
ness,  with  the  giggles  and  boisterous  fun  and 
"silliness"  of  the  early  teens,  and  the  social 
tactics  and  sophistries  of  the  later  period,  let 
us  remember  that  the  natural,  healthy  girl  is 
"whole."  She  is  body,  mind  and  spirit,  and  all 
68 


THE       SOCIAL       SIDE 

three  together  make  her  a  social  being.  All 
three  speak  in  the  passion  to  enjoy, — to  seek 
pleasure.  And  the  teacher  of  girls  in  their 
teens  is  as  truly  in  the  service  of  the  living 
God  when  she  boards  the  trolley  car  and  ac- 
companies her  girls  to  the  lake  for  a  picnic 
supper  after  a  day  of  hard  work  or  study  as 
when  teaching  them  on  Sunday  the  splendid 
principles  that  governed  Paul's  life.  She  just 
as  truly  serves,  some  cold,  rainy,  February 
afternoon  as,  with  two  of  the  girls  she  wants 
to  know  .better,  she  cuts  out  red  hearts  to 
decorate  the  room  for  the  valentine  social  to 
which  the  members  of  her  class  have  each  in- 
vited a  girl  not  specially  interested  in  the 
Sunday-school  as  when  she  talks  over  on 
Sunday,  "Serve  the  Lord  with  gladness,"  for 
on  Sunday  she  is  telling  them  how  to  serve 
and  on  Tuesday  she  is  showing  them  how 
through  her  own  action.  And  they  understand 
and  are  more  willing  to  listen  as  she  strives  to 
impress  upon  mind  and  heart  the  facts  and 
ideals  that  shall  keep  them  steady,  pure  and 
true  amidst  all  the  distractions  and  temptations 
of  the  world's  good  time. 

If  the  teacher  once  catches  a  glimpse  of 

the  significant  fact  that  a  girl  can  not  play 

wrong  and  pray  right,  a  new  realization  of  the 

importance  of  the  social  side  will  stir  her  to 

69 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

action  and  send  her  out  to  seek  help  from  all 
who  are  willing  to  aid  in  the  solution  of  the 
world  problem,  of  how  to  satisfy  the  social 
nature  in  ways  that  make  for  character. 


70 


CHAPTER  VI 

HER  RELATION   TO   THE  SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

x 

That  the  Sunday-school  has  no  relation 
whatever  to  vast  numbers  of  girls  in  their 
teens  is  a  fact  apparent  to  any  one  interested 
in  the  girlhood  of  that  period.  And  it  is  a 
fact  of  tremendous  significance.  It  means 
that  at  the  time  when  the  religious  sense  is 
keenly  responsive,  when  the  mental  faculties 
are  alert,  when  the  physical  is  asserting  itself 
with  all  its  power  for  good  or  evil,  the  girl  in 
large  numbers  is  not  getting  definite,  system- 
atic instruction  from  the  best  book  of  ethics, 
morals  and  religion  that  the  world  has  known. 
She  is  not  being  brought  face  to  face  each 
week  with  questions  that  have  to  do  with  her 
own  welfare,  and  that  of  the  world,  nor  is  she 
being  led  to  think  definitely  of  her  personal 
relation  to  the  church  and  its  work  for  man- 
kind. Unless  she  is  in  some  way  led  to  think 
along  these  lines  all  the  myriad  little  interests 
that  call  to  her  from  the  outside  world  slowly 
crowd  out  the  more  real  and  uplifting  thoughts 
and  influences. 
i  Every  one,  even  in  mature  life,  needs  to 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

/  came  regularly  into  contact  with  influences 
11<at  tend  to  lift  him  up  and  woo  him  away 
irom  the  domination  of  the  petty  and  ma- 
terial, and  even  more  is  it  needed  during  the 
years  when  character  is  taking  definite  form. 
/  No  girl  can  afford  to  lower  her  ideals  or 
I  even  to  allow  them  to  become  tarnished.  Life 
apart  from  contact  with  religion  in  some  form 
seems  to  do  that.  Men  in  later  years  seem 
often  to  recover  the  ideals  lost  during  their 
teens ;  women  seldom  do. 

So  even  a  glance  at  the  problem  shows  one 
that  the  first  thing  for  the  Sunday-school  to  do 
is  to  establish  a  relationship  between  itself  and 
the  multitudes  of  girls  in  their  teens. 

The  best  way  to  do  this,  as  any  teacher 
knows,  is  to  keep  a  strong  hold  on  the  girls 
who  have  been  regular  in  attendance  up  to 
twelve  years  of  age.  With  these  girls  as  a 
nucleus,  it  is  easier  to  make  definite  effort  to 
gain  new  members  and  to  make  the  class  so 
attractive  that  they  will  stay. 

When  the  teacher  has  resolved  to  make  the 
effort  to  reach  out  for  the  girl  who  is  leaving 
the  Sunday-school  in  large  numbers,  the  clear 
and  challenging  question,  "What  makes  a  class 
attractive  to  the  girl  in  her  teens?"  immedi- 
ately presents  itself. 

In  the  first  place,  the  Sunday-school  as  a 
72 


THE       SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

whole  makes  a  great  difference  to  the  girl  iqn 
her  teens.  She  likes  enthusiasm,  the  im- 
pression that  the  school  is  popular  with  its 
students,  that  indefinite  atmosphere  which 
makes  her  know  that  pupils  and  teachers  alike 
enjoy  the  hour  and  come  because  they  want  to. 
A  superintendent  who  is  popular  with  young 
people,  who  is  thoroughly  likable,  is  almost 
indispensable  in  the  teen  age.  The  Sunday- 
school  choir  with  fortnightly  rehearsals,  if  im- 
possible to  meet  oftener,  is  a  great  help,  and 
after  a  year  or  two  of  training  will  do  splendid 
work.  I  have  in  mind  a  school  where  the 
organized  choir  meets  only  once  a  month.  The 
music  for  the  next  few  Sundays  is  practised ; 
those  who  are  to  be  soloists  or  those  to  sing 
the  duets  are  chosen;  light  refreshments  are 
served  by  the  committee  from  the  choir,  and 
a  most  enjoyable  evening  spent.  The  reg- 
ular attendance  of  the  choir  at  Sunday-school 
has  been  remarkable,  and  a  number  of  new 
members  gained.  The  same  methods  can  be 
used  with  a  Sunday-school  orchestra  when 
there  are  enough  members  who  play  the  vari- 
ous instruments. 

The  girl  in  her  teens  enjoys  and  responds  to 
the  well-arranged  program  when  the  prayers, 
the  responses  and  the  whole  order  of  service 
are  dignified  and  impressive.    Just  watch  the 
73 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

college  girl  and  her  younger  sister  in  the  pre- 
paratory school  at  chapel  and  you  can  read 
her  response  in  her  face.  She  enjoys  variety, 
too,  and  the  program  which  remains  in  use  so 
long  that  after  three  years'  absence  she  can 
come  back  and  go  through  it  exactly  as  it  was 
when  she  left,  is  not  the  kind  likely  to  appeal 
to  her. 

We  have  seen  in  our  previous  studies  that 
the  girl  in  her  teens  is  in  love  with  real  life. 
'She  likes  people,  and  the  Sunday-school  lesson 
must  discuss  real  people  and  present  problems 
if  it  is  to  deeply  interest  her. 

I  was  present  recently  in  a  class  of  twelve 
girls  about  sixteen  years  old.  Nine  members 
of  the  class  were  supposed  to  be  "heathen"  and 
three  girls  were  to  tell  any  one  of  the  parables 
as  if  for  the  first  time  to  these  people,  anxious 
and  curious  to  learn  of  the  Christian  faith. 
The  interest  was  very  real.  After  the  telling 
of  each  parable  the  class  discussed  it  and  what 
it  would  mean  to  a  people  hearing  it  for  the 
first  time.  "The  Sowing  of  the  Seed,"  "The 
Good  Samaritan,"  and  "The  Ten  Talents" 
were  told.  At  the  close  the  teacher  told  very 
vividly  of  an  experience  of  a  dear  friend  of 
hers  who  sat  one  day  in  the  great  plaza  of  a 
Mexican  city,  and  told  the  story  of  the  lost 
coin  to  a  Mexican  woman  who  wore  a  bracelet 
74 


THE       SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

of  old  and  curious  coins.  The  account  of  the 
response  of  this  Mexican  who  heard  the  story 
for  the  first  time  made  a  great  impression 
upon  me,  as  upon  every  member  of  the  class. 
The  teacher  then  appointed  three  girls  for  the 
next  week  to  tell  any  one  of  the  experiences 
of  Jesus  on  his  preaching  tours  as  they  would 
tell  it  to  a  group  of  factory  girls  who  had 
neglected  church  for  years  and  almost  for- 
gotten how  to  pray.  Several  protested  that 
such  girls  would  not  listen,  and  the  discussion 
as  to  their  needs,  what  they  had  to  help  them 
live  pure,  true  lives,  what  had  made  them  care- 
less and  indifferent,  was  brought  to  a  close 
by  the  quiet  question  of  the  teacher,  "Do 
these  girls  need  Christ  or  his  teaching?" 
They  said,  "yes,"  with  conviction,  and  in  an- 
swer she  said,  "Then  there  must  be  a  way  to 
tell  what  he  said  and  thought  so  that  they 
will  listen;  perhaps  next  Sunday  one  of  our 
girls  will  find  the  way,  and  I  have  a  most  in- 
teresting story  to  tell  of  a  splendid  factory 
girl  who  herself  found  a  way." 

That  lesson  did  so  many  things  for  that 
class  of  girls.  It  made  them  think.  First  they 
had  to  be  able  to  tell  the  stories  Christ  told. 
The  class  in  discussion  had  to  think  of  the 
adaptability  of  the  story  to  the  people  who 
needed  to  hear  it,  and  of  all  it  could  mean  to 
75 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

them.  They  felt  the  joy  of  the  one  who  had 
the  privilege  of  telling  it  to  the  Mexican  for 
the  first  time.  They  said  themselves  that  the 
great  army  of  girls  in  our  factories  need  Christ. 
They  were  to  think  for  a  week  on  how  his 
words  might  be  brought  to  them.  The  lesson 
was  left  with  anticipation  for  next  week's 
story.  It  was  a  type  of  what  every  lesson 
should  be.  It  connected  the  past  and 
present;  it  touched  life  in  their  immediate 
surroundings  and  in  the  uttermost  parts  of 
the  world ;  it  gave  opportunity  for  original  ex- 
pression and  it  led  to  discussion.  It  reached 
some  conclusions.  It  appealed  to  the  imagina- 
tion and  emotions  and  closed  with  a  desire  on 
the  part  of  the  pupils  to  talk  more,  and  know 
more,  and  think  more. 

Perhaps  in  years  to  come  we  shall  have  good 
courses  of  lessons,  six  or  eight  weeks  in 
length,  which  will  help  the  teacher  to  do  just 
these  things.  Courses  which  shall  deal  with 
church  history  for  six  or  eight  weeks,  then 
with  missions,  with  charities,  with  the  history 
of  the  Bible,  with  the  definite  teachings  of  the 
New  Testament  and  their  relation  to  society 
to-day,  dealing  always  with  life  and  always 
with  Christ  as  the  great  helper  and  redeemer 
of  man  in  his  struggles  to  live  aright.  While 
we  wait  for  such  courses  the  individual  teacher 
76 


THE       SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

must  attempt,  with  the  material  she  has,  to 
make  real  and  vital  connections  with  life, 
broaden  the  pupil's  horizon  and  increase  her 
desire  for  knowledge.  New  courses  and  better 
lesson  material,  either  in  public  school  or  Sun- 
day-school, never  come  through  folding  one's 
arms  and  spending  one's  time  criticizing  the 
material  at  hand,  but  by  using  it,  changing  it, 
adapting  and  experimenting  with  it  until  some- 
thing is  found  which  more  nearly  meets  the 
need.  Any  teacher  now  reading  this  chapter 
may  be  the  one  to  discover  through  her  own 
experience  just  the  material  for  which  teachers 
of  the  girl  in  her  teens  are  waiting.  That  is 
the  reason  every  one  may  teach  with  courage 
and  joy. 

It  makes  little  difference  where  one  starts  in 
the  discussion  of  public-school  or  Sunday- 
school  problems,  he  always  comes  back  to  the 
teacher.  After  all  has  been  said,  the  teacher 
is  the  greatest  force  in  establishing  and  main- 
taining a  close  relationship  between  the  girl 
in  her  teens  and  the  Sunday-school.  "Ways 
and  means"  are  necessary  and  to  critics  of  the 
so-called  "machinery"  of  the  Sunday-school, 
I  have  only  one  answer — unless  I  can  get  a 
pupil  to  come,  I  can't  teach  him.  Absent  and 
irregular  pupils  receive  no  benefit  even  from 
the  finest  of  teachers,  and  any  legitimate 
77 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

"means"  by  which  a  pupil  may  be  induced  to 
come,  and  a  regularity  of  attendance  be  es- 
tablished, we  have  a  right  to  welcome  and  use. 
But  after  the  pupil  has  entered  and  become 
regularly  enrolled  it  is  the  teacher  who  is  the 
stimulating,  guiding  and  holding  power.  To 
analyze  the  charm  of  personality  which  at- 
tracts and  holds  the  girl  in  her  teens  is  im- 
possible, but  there  are  certain  things  which 
the  teacher  must  do  that  we  may  discuss. 

She  must  remember  that  the  girl  in  her  teens 
has  "grown  up,"  and  that  she  is  very  conscious 
of  it.  One  must  be  more  her  friend  than 
teacher.  In  the  earlier  years  every  Sunday- 
school  teacher  really  interested  in  her  pupils 
calls  freely  in  the  home.  When  the  girl 
reaches  the  teen  age,  the  teacher  must  ask  per- 
mission to  call.  "May  I  call  on  your  mother?" 
often  opens  the  way  for  a  special  invitation,  or 
at  least  gives  the  girl  an  opportunity  to 
make  the  invitation  cordial  or  to  let  it  be 
known  that  for  some  reason  she  prefers  not 
to  have  her  teacher  call.  I  remember  one  girl 
of  seventeen  who  never  gave  me  any  encour- 
agement when  I  suggested  calling,  and  I  re- 
spected her  wishes.  One  day  when  she  was 
very  ill,  the  mother  asked  me  to  come.  The 
girl  had  always  dressed  well,  was  intelligent 
and  refined,  and  would  have  been  supposed  to 


THE       SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

come  from  a  family  of  comfortable  means.  I 
found  it  to  be  a  home  of  real  poverty,  where 
the  father,  a  nervous  wreck  struggling  with 
diabetes,  was  unable  to  work  regularly,  and 
the  mother  was  obliged  to  assist.  Even  with 
the  seventeen-year-old  girl  giving  every  cent 
she  could  spare,  it  was  a  hard  struggle.  The 
girl  was  proud  and  reticent;  she  had  not 
wanted  me  to  know,  and  I  was  glad  I  had  not 
come  until  she  was  willing.  That  day  when 
she  was  ill  and  discouraged  she  was  willing — • 
she  really  needed  me. 

There  are  many  times  when  for  reasons  akin 
to  this  or  others  entirely  different  but  equally 
good,  a  girl  prefers  to  have  her  teacher  see 
and  know  her  apart  from  her  home.  Every 
woman  who  understands  girlhood  in  the  later 
teens  respects  such  a  wish. 

The  teacher's  home  should,  if  possible,  be 
always  open  to  the  girls  and  they  should  feel 
free  to  come.  Sometimes  it  is  not  possible 
and  then  the  cosiest  corner  in  the  smallest 
church  parlor  should  be  available. 

As  the  girl  approaches  the  later  teens  the 
Sunday-school  class  should  become  more  and 
more  a  place  of  training  for  service.  It  has 
been  my  experience  that  after  seventeen  many 
girls  prefer  to  work  in  Sunday-school  rather 
than  to  remain  as  pupils.  If  the  girls  express 
79 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

such  a  desire,  or  show  particular  willingness 
to  act  as  substitutes,  to  help  in  the  music  of 
the  elementary  departments,  or  to  tell  stories 
to  the  beginners,  such  a  desire  should  be  rec- 
ognized and  an  opportunity  given  a  girl  to 
test  herself  under  supervision.  The  Sunday- 
school  should  be  constantly  preparing  assis- 
tant superintendents,  directors  of  music,  sec- 
retaries and  teachers.  Material  for  the 
teachers'  training-class  is  found  in  classes  in 
the  later  teens. 

Some  of  the  most  loyal,  responsive  and  suc- 
cessful teachers  of  pupils  from  nine  to  twelve, 
I  have  found  in  the  boys  and  girls  of  the  later 
teens.  While  they  lack  mature  judgment  and 
discretion,  they  have  enthusiasm  and  desire 
to  succeed  in  any  undertaking.  If  the  Sunday- 
school  is  constantly  training  such  helpers  as 
assistants,  and  testing  them  as  substitutes,  then 
the  changes  that  are  bound  to  come  in  the 
teaching  force  of  any  Sunday-school  are  not 
so  disastrous,  for  some  one  will  be  ready  to 
supply  the  need. 

As  has  been  hinted  in  previous  studies,  the 
.Sunday-school  should  lend  valuable  assistance 
in  making  the  church  a  social  center  for  the 
young  people  who  need  it.  To  be  of  real  vital 
interest  to  the  girl,  the  Sunday-school  must 
touch  her  everyday  life.  It  does  that  through 
80 


THE       SUNDAY-SCHOOL 

the  social  side  of  its  work.  The  organized  class 
giving  socials,  entertainments,  enjoying  lec- 
tures and  music,  picnics,  trolley  parties,  skat- 
ing or  camping  has  a  decided  influence  for 
good  on  all  the  members.  I  know  of  one  such 
organized  class  of  girls  eighteen  and  nineteen 
years  old  which  met  three  times  a  month  for 
an  entire  year.  They  met  one  week  "for  fun," 
the  next  to  "go  somewhere,"  or  "to  hear  a 
talk,"  or  "to  sew  and  read,  and  talk  if  we 
want  to,"  and  the  third  for  a  "sing"  to  which 
they  invited  members  of  the  boys'  classes.  All 
these  meetings  were  popular,  well  attended, 
and  have  meant  a  strong  united  class  with  a 
splendid  spirit. 

'The  girl  in  her  teens  needs  the  Sunday- 
school  because  of  the  help  and  uplift  which  its 
teachings  are  bound  to  bring  to  her.  Even  if 
she  belongs  to  a  class  in  its  early  teens  which 
is  given  over  to  the  giggles,  to  wandering 
thoughts,  to  all  sorts  of  asides  in  more  or  less 
noticeable  whispers,  to  the  continual  admix- 
tures of  the  Bible  lessons  and  the  events  of  the 
week  just  passed  or  to  come, — even  though 
as  is  often  the  case  with  the  American  girl, 
she  is  thoughtless  enough  to  forget  to  be  either 
reverent  or  courteous,  still  it  pays  for  her  to 
come.  She  gets  something, — often  more  than 
we  think. 

81 


THE  GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

And  the  Sunday-school  needs  the  girl  in  her 
teens.  It  needs  her  devotion,  her  enthusiasm 
and  eagerness,  her  close  touch  with  both  the 
real  and  ideal  in  life,  that  it  may  keep  its 
balance,  stay  in  the  real  world  of  need,  and  not 
walk  far  afield  by  paths  of  theory.  The  Sun- 
day-school has  awakened  to  its  need  of  the 
girl,  and  now  at  its  door  lies  the  task  of  mak- 
ing her  feel  more  and  more  her  need  of  it. 


82 


VII 

HER  RELATION  TO  THE  CHURCH 

The  girl  in  her  teens,  in  common  with  all 
humanity,  needs  the  upward  pull.  Fresh  air, 
suitable  clothing,  nourishing  food,  so  desirable 
in  all  stages  of  her  development,  become,  we 
have  seen,  an  absolute  necessity  during  her 
teens.  If  not  supplied,  her  whole  future  is 
doomed  to  pay  the  penalty;  and  unless  during 
the  period  of  the  awakening  and  strengthening 
of  ideals,  a  steady,  uplifting,  spiritualizing 
force  has  a  definite  influence  upon  the  rapidly 
changing  and  developing  forces  of  her  nature, 
the  chances  are  that  her  whole  future  will 
pay  the  price  neglect  always  demands.  The 
steady,  upward  pull  is  a  necessity. 

There  are  so  many  things  in  life  that  furnish 
the  downward  pull.  Even  the  more  fortunate 
girl,  who  lives  in  her  own  home  and  spends 
the  greater  part  of  each  day  in  the  enlarging 
atmosphere  of  a  good  public  school,  feels  the 
downward  pull.  In  the  most  carefully  selected 
of  select  schools,  the  girl,  though  guarded 
every  moment,  feels  the  downward  pull  of  the 
petty,  selfish  and  mean.  The  girl  in  her  teens 
33 


THE   GIRL   IN    HER  TEENS 

hard  at  work  among  the  world's  toilers  is  pain- 
fully conscious  of  it  in  one  or  more  of  its 
many  forms. 

In  the  struggle  between  the  higher  and  the 
lower — the  upward  and  the  downward  pull — 
humanity  finds  its  growth  and  development. 
If  there  is  no  struggle  there  is  no  strength. 
The  girl  in  her  teens  does  not  know  all  this — 
her  teacher  does,  and  puts  forth  all  her  effort 
to  strengthen  the  upward  pull. 

As  we  study  and  observe  the  girl  in  her 
development  one  question  persistently  follows 
us.  To  what  shall  we  look  for  this  upward 
pull  ?  There  are  many  answers :  the  home, 
the  school,  iriends,  good  environment,  the 
church.  With  the  last  we  are  especially  con- 
cerned. 

Even  the  most  open  and  avowed  enemy  of 
the  church  of  to-day  would  not  hesitate  to 
place  it  definitely  on  the  side  of  the  upward 
pull.  Its  history,  teachings  and  ideals,  like 
its  spires,  point  upward.  It  says  reverently 
and  steadily  to  a  world  of  busy  men  so  much 
engaged  in  the  rush  for  mere  things  that  they 
find  it  easy  to  forget  all  else,  two  simple, 
tremendously  significant  words — GOD  is.  It 
says  persistently,  above  the  struggle  for 
power  through  possessions, — "Truth,  Right- 
eousness, Justice,  Love,  these  alone  mean  hap- 
84 


RELATION    TO    THE     CHURCH 

piness,"  and  at  some  time  during  his  progress 
from  childhood  to  old  age  man  stops  to  listen. 
The  most  natural  and  effective  time  to  stop  is 
during  the  early  teens. 

Of  course  the  church,  being  made  up  of 
humanity,  has  its  weaknesses.  As  an  upward 
pulling  force  it  is  not  perfect.  Nothing  is. 
Its  most  loyal  friends  are  the  ones  most  con- 
scious of  its  faults  and  failures.  Its  members 
feel  its  weakness  more  keenly  than  the  out- 
side world  possibly  can,  just  as  the  members 
of  a  family  feel  more  deeply  than  the  outside 
world  the  weakness  and  failures  of  its  mem- 
bers in  any  particular. 

But  in  spite  of  its  errors  of  creed,  its  lack, 
in  many  cases,  of  authority  and  initiative,  and 
its  temptation  to  shun  real  problems,  yet  the 
members  do  feel  the  power  of  its  upward  pull, 
and  the  community  in  general  is  conscious 
of  it. 

To  place  the  girl  in  her  teens  where  she 
will  feel  most  strongly  the  lifting  power  of 
the  church  is  the  business  of  her  parents  and 
teachers. 

In  the  average  community  the  girl  has  been 
more  or  less  in  contact  with  the  church  from 
her  earliest  years.  Her  estimation  of  its 
value,  its  purpose  and  power,  has  been  built 
up  through  the  years  by  what  she  has  heard 
85 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

parents,  companions  and  teachers  say  of  it. 
It  is  a  refuge  for  the  weak,  a  company  of 
people  who  think  themselves  better  than  oth- 
ers, a  respectable  moral  organization  through 
which  men  climb  to  higher  social  planes,  a 
necessary  guardian  of  good  in  the  community; 
or,  the  visible  expression  of  the  religion  of 
Jesus  Christ,  the  highest  and  most  potent 
force  in  the  world  to-day  for  the  conversion 
and  uplifting  of  mankind.  Her  opinion  is  in 
accordance  with  the  general  opinion  of  those 
in  her  immediate  environment. 

As  she  approaches  her  teens,  if  her  parents 
are  not  church  people,  through  the  influence 
of  the  Sunday-school  of  which  she  is  a  mem- 
ber she  usually  becomes  a  more  or  less  regular 
attendant  upon  the  services  of  the  church.  If 
her  teacher  is  wise  she  does  all  in  her  power 
to  establish  the  habit  of  church  attendance. 
If  the  pastor  has  a  thought  and  a  word  for 
the  younger  members  of  his  congregation  the 
girl,  interested  and  helped,  responds  accord- 
ing to  her  temperament. 

About  the  time  she  enters  her  teens,  if  she 
is  a  Sunday-school  girl,  she  has  had,  through 
Decision  Day  or  in  answer  to  the  direct  ques- 
tion of  her  pastor  or  teacher,  the  opportunity 
of  saying,  "I  choose  to  be  a  Christian."  If 
her  teaching  has  been  careful  and  wise  she  will 
86 


RELATION    TO    THE    CHURCH 

know  what  being  a  Christian  should  mean  to  a 
girl  of  thirteen,  and  she  will  make  the  choice 
gladly  and  of  her  own  free  will.  Before  she 
is  sixteen  she  will  have  met  the  question  of 
her  direct  relation  to  the  church.  Shall  she 
join  it  in  its  work  in  the  world?  If  "joining 
the  church"  is  made  the  simple,  sincere  matter 
that  it  really  is,  the  average  girl  responds 
easily  and  earnestly.  Only  those  who  year 
after  year  have  helped  girls  from  fourteen  to 
sixteen  decide  to  take  the  step  can  know  the 
genuine,  loving,  devoted  spirit  in  which  they 
come  to  their  decisions. 

Through  the  weeks  of  instruction  that  fol- 
low the  decision,  when  the  girl  learns,  under 
her  pastor's  or  teacher's  direction,  the  history 
of  the  church,  the  development  of  her  own 
denomination,  and  the  statements  of  its  creed, 
the  work  the  church  has  done,  and  is  actu- 
ally doing  for  the  poor  and  outcast,  the  rich 
and  careless,  her  admiration  for  it  deepens, 
and  all  the  love  and  devotion  of  her  girl 
heart  goes  out  to  Him  whose  wonderful  life 
and  sacrifice  have  inspired  ordinary  men  and 
women  to  live  in  the  world  as  real  Christians. 

After  such  instruction,   when  the   Sunday 

comes  on  which  she  is  to  publicly  unite  with 

the  church  she  knozvs  what  she  is  doing  and 

why.     She  knows  as   fully  as  any  one  can 

87 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

what  she  believes,  for  belief  is  a  growth,  and 
life  and  experience  always  modify  it.  The 
mystery  of  the  communion  service  is  to  her  as 
clear  as  it  is  to  any  of  us,  and  she  prays  as 
truly  and  sincerely  as  the  oldest  and  wisest. 

How  much  of  uplift  to  her  whole  life  her 
act  has  been  can  be  known  only  to  those  who 
year  after  year  have  walked  home  with  her 
after  the  service,  received  her  notes  so  full  of 
joy,  and  watched  her  effort  to  live  aright  in 
the  weeks  that  follow. 

So  far  in  the  relation  of  the  church  to  the 
religious  and  spiritual  development  of  the  girl 
the  steps  have  been  successive,  natural,  and 
easy,  but  now  the  hard  part  comes. 

She  is  on  Monday,  after  uniting  with  the 
church,  the  same  girl  that  she  was  on  Satur- 
day before  doing  so.  If  she  had  a  bad  temper, 
she  has  it  still ;  if  she  was  easily  tempted  to 
be  insincere,  selfish,  sarcastic,  careless,  unkind, 
the  characteristics  are  with  her  still.  She  has 
simply  placed  herself  on  the  side  of  the  up- 
ward pull,  and  every  one  of  us  who  comes 
in  contact  with  her  should  watch  the  struggle 
against  the  downward  pull  never  with  con- 
demnation and  criticism,  but  always  with  sym- 
pathy and  assistance. 

Here  is  where  the  church  so  often  fails. 
Having  joined  the  church  she  is  ever  after 
88 


RELATION     TO    THE    CHURCH 

expected  to  be  good.  "The  girl  has  joined 
the  church,  all  is  done,"  is  a  false  and  fatal 
conclusion. 

I  have  been  watching  with  real  interest  a 
young  girl  who,  after  a  most  happy  engage- 
ment, a  beautiful  wedding,  a  delightful  con- 
tinental trip,  is  learning  to  live  in  the  prosaic 
every  day.  She  had  forgotten  that  it  is  al- 
ways there  waiting  for  us.  In  her  great  up- 
lift and  happiness  little  things  had  not  made 
her  as  angry  as  before.  But  she  found  out 
what  could  happen  when  "Harry"  forgot  to 
order  the  cream  for  the  dinner  party  at  which 
all  her  friends  were  present  for  the  first  time 
in  her  new  home.  After  her  outburst  of 
anger  she  was  so  discouraged  that  she  was 
tempted  to  think  the  whole  thing  was  a  mis- 
take, that  she  could  not  have  loved  him,  and 
she  could  never  be  happy  again.  She  had 
not  reckoned  with  herself.  The  plain  details 
of  everyday  living  reveal  one  to  himself.  He 
finds  he  cannot  live  in  the  clouds,  and  that  the 
art  of  living  harmoniously  and  finely  in  the 
valley  must  be  learned,  and  it  takes  time. 

The  girl  in  her  teens  after  uniting  with  the 
church  and  experiencing  the  uplift  and  stim- 
ulus must  come  back  to  the  every  day.  Like 
my  young  friend,  she  so  often  thinks  that  she 
will  "never  feel  angry  again."  She  does,  and 
89 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

with  the  failure  to  control  herself  or  the  quick 
yielding  to  her  special  temptation  comes  the 
feeling  of  utter  discouragement.  She  is  not 
good  enough  to  be  a  member  of  the  church, 
and  it  was  a  mistake.  She  needs  help — her 
mother  or  teacher — to  make  her  see  that  even  a 
deep  love  can  not  in  a  moment  overcome  a 
quick  temper,  nor  uniting  with  the  church 
overcome  the  habit  of  the  unkind  word  and 
selfish  act.  It  will  give  her  comfort  and  cour- 
age to  know  that  one  becomes  a  real  Chris- 
tian by  successive  steps,  and  it  will  take  all 
her  life  to  accomplish  the  task. 

The  first  thing  a  young  member  of  the 
church  needs  to  help  her  become  what  we 
want  her  to  be,  a  sane,  natural,  happy  girl,  in- 
terested in,  enjoying  and  loving  all  the  things 
that  belong  to  the  normal  girl  in  her  teens, 
is  work. 

She  must  have  something  to  do,  for  unless 
the  emotions  are  given  a  sane,  legitimate  out- 
let, she  may  come  to  the  fatal  conclusion  that 
religion  is  a  thing  apart  from  life,  or  there 
may  follow  a  lowering  of  ideals,  or  the  mor- 
bid introspection  common  to  girls  in  their 
teens,  but  which  the  Christian  should  escape. 

So  we  must  direct  her  thoughts  from  herself 
to  her  companions.  It  is  she  who  can  establish 
a  bond  of  interest  between  the  other  girl  and 
90 


RELATION    TO    THE    CHURCH 

the  church.  She  can  bring  the  other  girl 
under  its  influence,  and  help  her  see  what  it 
stands  for  in  the  world. 

"No,"  said  a  girl  to  me  at  a  conference, 
"it  isn't  any  of  the  speakers,  or  the  books,  or 
sermons  that  have  interested  me;  it  is  just 
Edith  and  Alice.  They  are  such  splendid 
girls  and  they  just  love  the  church  and  all 
the  work  they  are  doing.  They  are  having 
such  good  times  and  are  truly  happy.  I  want 
to  understand  it.  Whatever  it  is  I  want  it." 
I  have  heard  scores  of  girls  say  it  in  varying 
phraseology.  One  girl  influences  another 
more  than  we  can,  so  we  may  set  her  at  work 
with  her  companions. 

But  that  is  not  work  enough — and  it  is  too 
indefinite.  She  must  have  a  part  in  the  mis- 
sion work,  the  social  work,  be  interested  in 
the  sick  and  unfortunate,  and  learn  now  that 
the  business  of  the  church  is  to  care  about  the 
lonely  women,  the  toiling  women  and  their 
children,  the  little,  narrow,  self-centered 
women,  and  those  who  find  it  hard  to  be  good, 
just  as  its  Lord  and  Master  cared.  Nothing  is 
more  encouraging  to  those  who  love  the  church 
than  a  large  number  of  bright,  attractive,  nat- 
ural girls,  on  whose  hearts  and  lives  this  great 
truth  is  beginning  to  make  an  impression 
which  must  find  expression. 
91 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

The  second  thing  necessary  to  the  right 
development  of  the  girl  in  her  teens  is  ideal 
Christian  women  in  the  church  of  which  she 
is  a  member.  The  women  of  the  church, 
from  those  a  little  older  than  herself  up  to 
those  who  for  many  years  have  been  its  sup- 
port, must  show  to  her  what  it  means  to  be 
a  Christian  woman  in  the  church,  community 
and  home.  Alas  for  those  girls  who  see  that 
it  means  only  attendance  upon  the  services  of 
the  church  when  perfectly  convenient,  and 
when  minister  and  choir  are  entirely  satisfac- 
tory !  Alas  for  those  girls  who  see  that  it 
means  little  more  than  a  comfortable  sense  of 
respectability  and  social  opportunity ! 

Fortunate  are  those  girls  who  in  their  early 
teens  see  among  the  church  members  scores 
of  sane,  true,  large-hearted  women  interested 
in  every  need,  anxious  to  help,  and  willing  to 
serve  in  every  way  that  time  and  means  will 
permit. 

The  church  of  whose  women  the  girl  in  her 
teens,  watching  with  her  keen  eye,  can  say,  in 

her  ardent  way,  "I'd  rather  be  like  Mrs. , 

than  any  one  I  know — she  is  perfectly  lovely," 
is  of  real  value  as  an  uplifting,  vitalizing  force 
in  the  world. 

The  girl  in  her  teens  needs  the  church  to 
furnish  the  upward  pull  and  there  is  need 
92 


RELATION    TO    THE    CHURCH 

of  greater  effort  in  every  line  and  by  every 
member  to  bring  her  into  contact  with  it. 

The  church  needs  the  girl  in  her  teens  with 
all  the  intensity  of  her  power  of  devotion  and 
genuineness  of  her  love ;  with  all  the  strength 
of  her  emotions  so  easily  turned  under  right 
conditions  toward  the  best  things  in  life. 


93 


CHAPTER  VIII 

HER  RELATION  TO  THE  BIBLE 

One  beautiful  June  Sunday  I  stood  wait- 
ing for  my  car  at  the  transfer  corner,  think- 
ing about  the  Sunday  problem  and  watching 
the  crowd  hurrying  away  to  the  parks  and 
the  lakes,  when  a  most  interesting  group  of 
girls  passed.  There  were  six  or  eight  of  them 
about  sixteen  years  old,  and  in  their  light 
dresses,  their  fresh,  sweet  faces  half  hidden 
by  hats  that  were  "too  dear  for  anything," 
they  made  a  picture  good  to  see. 

They  were  evidently  returning  from  Sun- 
day-school, for  most  of  them  carried  Bibles, 
and,  as  I  watched  them  out  of  sight,  I  was 
plunged  into  a  wilderness  of  questions  as  to 
what  that  wonderful  old  Book,  written  in  the 
dim,  hazy  past  under  foreign  skies,  in  lan- 
guages almost  forgotten,  could  possibly  have 
to  do  with  gay,  happy,  laughing  girlhood — in 
the  midst  of  the  things  of  to-day.  And  I 
knew  that  to  the  majority  of  girls  in  their 
teens  it  means  little.  Most  of  them  own  it, 
respect  it,  and  feel  a  certain  reverence  for 
what  it  says,  but  it  plays  little  part  in  their 
everyday*  lives. 

94 


HER  RELATION  TO  THE  BIBLE 

The  average  girl  in  her  teens  uses  it  more 
or  less  in  the  preparation  of  her  Sunday-school 
lesson.  She  hears  certain  portions  of  it  read 
without  comment  in  opening  exercises  in 
school ;  in  a  comparatively  few  instances  it 
is  read  in  the  morning  or  evening  at  home. 
That  is  practically  all  that  most  girls  have  to 
do  with  the  Book  whose  teachings  have  so 
largely  made  possible  the  wealth  of  happiness 
of  the  girlhood  of  to-day. 

How  to  bring  the  girl  in  her  teens  into  touch 
with  this  Book  of  books  so  that  it  shall  exert 
upon  her  individual  life  its  wonderful  power 
of  transforming,  purifying,  and  strengthening 
character  is  a  problem. 

But  those  who  have  been  trying  hard  to 
meet  it  have  learned  some  things.  They  have 
found  out  that  the  girl  in  her  teens  knows  lit- 
tle of  the  history  of  the  Book,  and  that  when 
she  is  told  the  story  of  how  we  got  our  Bible 
she  is  intensely  interested.  Its  wonderful  his- 
tory, from  the  time  before  it  lay  in  parchment 
rolls  on  monastery  shelves  and  on  through  the 
centuries  until  it  reached  the  hands  of  ordinary 
men  and  women,  and  the  period  of  their  strug- 
gle to  learn  to  read  that  they  might  know 
what  it  said,  stirs  the  imagination  and  awakens 
a  host  of  questions  that  lead  to  knowledge. 

When  she  begins  to  understand  what  it  has 
95 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

cost  to  preserve  the  book,  how  not  only  men 
and  women,  but  boys  and  girls,  have  loved  it 
and  died  rather  than  betray  it  or  disobey  its 
commands,  it  becomes  to  her  a  new  book, 
worthy  of  her  study. 

But  the  history  of  the  Book,  although  it 
is  necessary  and  does  deeply  interest  the  girl 
and  increase  her  respect  for  it,  is  by  no  means 
all  we  want  her  to  have. 

The  fragmentary  knowledge  of  Abraham 
and  David,  Esther,  Ruth  and  Paul  which  she 
has  gained  in  her  childhood  must  be  supple- 
mented now  by  the  knowledge  of  great  periods 
and  what  the  world  learned  through  them. 
She  needs  to  be  shown  what  the  Psalms  and 
some  of  the  chapters  of  Isaiah  and  the  other 
prophets  have  'meant  to  the  literature,  music 
and  art  of  the  world. 

I  remember  with  pleasure  the  class  of  girls 
sixteen  and  seventeen  years  old  who  studied 
the  books  of  Job  and  Jonah  with  me  one  year. 
The  dramatic  element  held  us,  and  Job  and 
his  friends,  Jonah  and  his  struggle,  became 
very  real  to  us.  Two  years  afterward  one 
of  the  girls,  in  talking  about  references  to  the 
Bible  in  literature,  said  to  me,  "Well,  when 
they  refer  to  Jonah  or  Job  I'm  safe,  for  those 
two  books  I  shall  never  forget."  She  can  grasp 
i  a  book  as  a  whole,  remember  it  and  enjoy  it. 


HER  RELATION  TO  THE  BIBLE 

But  the  study  of  the  Bible  under  guidance 
and  with  every  means  used  to  make  it  inter- 
esting and  helpful  is  not  all  that  we  want  for 
our  girl.  She  must  be  led  to  find  in  the  Bible 
personal  inspiration  and  help. 

Experience  so  far  has  taught  me  that  unless 
the  girl  in  her  teens  is  a  member  of  a  Chris- 
tian Endeavor  Society  or  kindred  organization, 
or  a  member  of  the  church,  she  is  not  likely 
to  read  the  Bible  for  herself,  nor  is  it  easy 
to  interest  her  to  do  so.  She  may  enjoy 
poetry  and  really  good  literature,  and  be  an 
omnivorous  reader,  yet  never  read  the  Bible. 
She  has  often  told  me  frankly  that  she  really 
does  not  like  to  read  it  because  it  is  not  inter- 
esting and  she  does  not  understand  it. 

We  understand  her  feeling  perfectly.  The 
phraseology  is  unfamiliar,  and  her  knowledge 
is  not  broad  enough  to  help  her  with  the  con- 
text ;  and  to  do  anything  voluntarily  with  reg- 
ularity, unless  it  is  absolutely  necessary,  is  not 
easy  for  the  average  girl  in  her  teens.  But 
every  one  interested  in  the  future  develop- 
ment of  the  girl's  personal  religious  life  is 
anxious  to  establish  now,  in  her  early  teens, 
the  habit  of  reading  every  day  the  words  that 
have  brought  new  life  and  salvation  to  the 
world. 

It  needs  no  argument  to  show  that  any  girl 
97 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

is  safer,  finer,  and  less  easily  led  into  danger- 
ous byways  of  thought  and  action  if  in  be- 
ginning the  day,  or  when  it  closes,  she  takes 
time  to  read  "Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart :  for 
they  shall  see  God,"  "Do  unto  others  as  ye 
would  that  they  should  do  unto  you,"  or  the 
story  of  the  Good  Samaritan,  the  healing  of 
the  blind,  the  parables,  the  thirteenth  of  First 
Corinthians,  or,  "If  any  man  thinketh  himself 
to  be  religious,  while  he  bridleth  not  his  tongue 
but  deceiveth  his  heart,  this  man's  religion 
is  vain/'  or  the  next  verse,  with  its  clear-cut 
definition  so  plain  that  any  girl  can  understand. 
Through  these  and  the  other  words  of  the 
New  Testament  she  is  coming  daily  into  touch 
with  the  deepest,  most  fundamental  truths  to 
which  men  have  ever  listened.  More  than 
that,  she  is  coming  through  these  words  into 
touch  with  Christ.  No  girl  can  read  day 
after  day  the  words  he  spoke  or  the  record 
of  his  works  of  compassion  and  love,  the 
story  of  his  patient,  brave  endurance  of  the 
cross,  his  faith  that  the  disciples  he  loved 
would  carry  on  his  mission,  without  becoming 
a  finer  type  of  girl.  And  if  after  reading  she 
bows  her  head  for  a  moment  only,  and  sin- 
cerely prays  for  strength  to  do  right  all 
through  the  day,  or  when  the  day  is  over,  asks 
for  pardon  for  what  she  has  done  amiss,  then 


HER  RELATION  TO  THE  BIBLE 

we  need  not  fear  that  she  will  go  far  wrong 
on  her  way  through  life.  One  may  be  in- 
sincere under  many  circumstances,  but  one 
is  rarely  insincere  when,  alone,  at  the  begin- 
ning or  close  of  the  day  he  reads  the  words  of 
that  Book,  and  prays.  So  we,  who  long  for 
the  best  for  our  girl  in  her  teens,  are  willing 
to  do  anything  in  our  power  to  help  her  es- 
tablish the  habit  of  sincere  reading  of  the 
teachings  of  Christ,  and  of  genuine  prayer  for 
strength  to  live  them  out  every  day  of  her  life. 

Oftentimes  such  little  things  help  in  form- 
ing the  habit.  I  know  of  one  teacher  success- 
ful in  reaching  the  secret  recesses  of  girls' 
hearts,  who,  with  three  of  her  fourteen-year- 
old  girls,  read  every  night  for  a  year  the 
same  Bible  chapters,  she  assigning  them  one 
week  in  advance.  After  they  read  the  short 
selections  they  prayed  for  one  another  and 
the  members  of  the  class  not  Christians. 
Just  how  the  prayers  of  those  girls  for  their 
friends  could  or  did  affect  their  lives  none  of 
us  can  understand,  but  that  they  did  have  a 
definite  moulding  influence  on  the  lives  of  the 
girls  themselves  and  their  relation  to  other 
girls  was  plainly  evident. 

I  know  of  one  impulsive,  imaginative,  six- 
teen-year-old girl  who  formed  the  habit  of 
reading,  while  retiring,  a  chapter  or  more  from 
99 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

the  weak,  sentimental,  but  nevertheless  fasci- 
nating, love  stories  which  just  then  were  her 
delight.  She  found  it  hard  to  go  to  sleep,  and 
often  lay  for  hours  in  a  highly  excited  emo- 
tional state,  going  over  and  over  the  words  of 
the  hero  and  heroine. 

At  Christmas,  an  older  girl  whom  she 
greatly  admired  gave  her  a  Year  Book  having 
a  Bible  verse  at  the  top  of  each  page,  followed 
by  quotations  or  forceful  words  of  explanation. 
She  asked  her  young  friend  to  read  it  the 
very  last  thing  every  night,  and  underline  with 
pencil  anything  she  thought  especially  fine  or 
true,  and  put  a  question  mark  beside  anything 
she  did  not  understand,  and  every  few  weeks 
they  would  look  it  over  together.  The  six- 
teen-year-old decided  to  learn  the  Bible  verses. 
Often  she  looked  up  the  reference  in  the  Bible. 
She  faithfully  underlined,  questioned,  and 
went  to  bed  with  some  of  the  finest  thoughts 
in  literature  filling  her  mind.  Any  one  who 
heard  her  testimony,  while  in  college,  as  to 
what  that  year's  reading  meant  to  her  might 
be  almost  tempted  to  present  year  books  to  all 
girls  in  their  teens. 

Another  very  earnest  young  teacher,  in  love 

with  girls,  purchased  for  her  class  cheap  New 

Testaments   and  small  unruled  blank  books. 

She  assigned  a  topic  for  a  month's  reading, 

100 


HER  RELATION  TO  THE  BIBLE 

such  as  faith,  love,  courage,  justice,  and  asked 
the  girls  to  cut  from  the  Testament  all  verses 
on  that  subject,  and  paste  them  under  the 
proper  headings.  The  result  was  a  group  of 
girls  reading  every  night  on  the  assigned  topic, 
and  at  the  end  of  the  month  able  to  read 
from  their  blank  books  all  that  Christ  and 
the  apostles  had  to  say  on  that  subject.  Many 
of  the  girls  added  quotations  and  poems  refer- 
ring to  the  special  subject,  thus  enlarging  their 
own  conception  of  it. 

The  girls  valued  their  blank  books  highly, 
and  exhibited  them  with  satisfaction.  The 
teacher  did  not  seem  especially  proud  of  the 
books,  but  exceedingly  pleased  that  the  class 
had  grown  familiar  with  so  many  of  the 
verses.  She  had  a  right  to  feel  gratified  with 
her  work,  for  she  was  helping  them  to  become 
acquainted  with  the  Book,  just  as  I  help  my 
girls  in  their  teens  in  school  to  become  familiar 
with  the  encyclopaedia — by  sending  them  to  it 
repeatedly,  until  they  form  the  habit  of  con- 
sulting it. 

That  many  girls  in  their  teens  are  steadied 
and  helped  through  hard  experiences  by  the 
words  of  comfort  and  encouragement  which 
they  find  in  the  Bible  any  teacher  of  experi- 
ence in  Sunday-school  work  knows. 

I  am  looking  now  at  the  picture  of  the  sweet, 
101 


THE   GIRL   IN    HER  TEENS 

strong  face  of  a  girl  of  seventeen.  She  is  hard 
at  work  helping  support  the  family.  The 
father  has  tried  many  times  to  reform  and 
let  drink  alone,  and  as  many  times  failed. 
The  girl  can  hardly  endure  the  life  at  home, 
yet  for  the  sake  of  the  younger  children  she 
must  stay.  Recently,  when  I  told  her  how 
much  I  admired  her,  she  said,  "It  has  seemed 
this  year  as  if  I  couldn't  keep  on.  I  can't  tell 
you  how  much  two  verses  on  my  calendar  have 
helped  me.  I  keep  saying  them  over  and  over, 
'I  will  never  leave  thee,  nor  forsake  thee,'  and 
Tear  not,  I  will  help  thee.' " 

Another  girl,  struggling  to  overcome  the 
habit  of  exaggeration  which  has  been  a  char- 
acteristic of  her  family  for  generations,  said 
to  me  one  day,  "I  think  so  often  of  that  verse, 
'With  God  all  things  are  possible/  If  it 
weren't  for  that  I  would  give  up,  for  just  as  I 
think  I  am  improving  I  fail  again,  and  it  seems 
as  if  I  never  could  tell  things  as  they  are." 

I  have  found  many  girls  in  their  teens  lonely, 
discouraged,  misunderstood,  or  in  the  presence 
of  great  sorrow,  turning  to  the  words  of  the 
Book,  and  really  finding  help  and  comfort. 

If,  then,  the  girl  in  her  teens  can  be  taught 

something  of  the  history  of  the  Bible, — the 

languages  in  which  it  has  been  written,  the 

methods  by  which  it  was  compiled  and  trans- 

102 


HER  RELATION  TO  THE  BIBLE 

lated,  and  finally  printed, — so  that  she  will  not 
half  believe  that  in  some  mysterious  way  it 
dropped  down  from  heaven,  or  else  never  even 
ask  where  it  came  from;  if  she  can  be  taught 
that  its  men  and  women  were  real  and  lived 
under  real  conditions  in  a  real  world;  if  she 
can  know  something  of  their  struggles,  defeats 
and  victories,  and  learn  to  love  their  psalms 
and  poems ;  if  she  can  be  led  to  see  something 
of  their  growth  and  development  as  they 
waited  for  the  Christ  to  come,  then  the  Bible 
will  be  to  her  a  real  book,  not  a  fetish  to  be 
worshiped  afar  off. 

And  if  she  can  be  led  to  seek  in  the  Gospels 
and  letters  of  the  New  Testament  help  and 
inspiration  to  live  honestly  and  sincerely,  then 
the  Bible  will  become  a  tremendous  force  for 
righteousness  in  her  daily  life. 

When  she  meets  the  hard  things  of  life  or 
the  temptations  of  leisure  a  girl  so  taught  and 
trained  will  have  something  to  help  her;  and 
such  a  girl,  as  she  enters  college  and  takes  up 
critical  study  of  the  Book,  will  have  nothing 
to  fear. 

The  secret  of  the  marvelous  influence  of  the 
Old  Testament  on  human  life  lies  in  three 
short  words, — "And  God  said,"  and  the  secret 
of  the  marvelous  transforming  power  of  the 
New  Testament  lies  in  one  word,  "Christ" — 
103 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

"Christ"— "Christ."  When  the  girl  in  her 
teens  opens  daily  to  read  for  herself  what  that 
Book  has  to  say  of  the  leadings  of  Jehovah 
and  the  teachings  of  Christ,  she  is  on  the  road 
to  safety, — therefore  the  work  of  every  teacher 
is  to  help  her  to  open  it. 


104 


CHAPTER  IX 

HER  RELATION  TO  THE  EVERYDAY 

The  girls  in  her  teens,  although  she  is  able 
now  and  then  through  her  imagination  to 
transfer  herself  to  a  land  of  day-dreams,  where 
all  she  desires  is  hers,  for  the  most  part  is 
obliged  to  live  in  the  everyday,  and  often  she 
finds  it  hard. 

But  she  is  young — and  one  may  always  hope 
when  in  her  teens.  If  she  is  ill,  health  may 
come  in  a  few  weeks,  a  month,  a  year  at  most. 
If  she  works  hard,  she  may  always  hope  for  a 
"better  place  with  more  money,"  or  by  and  by, 
just  in  the  future  a  little  way,  a  happy  home 
of  her  own  where  she  will  have  everything  she 
wants. 

If  she  is  struggling  for  an  education,  the 
joy  of  what  she  will  be  able  to  do  some  day 
sustains  her.  If  she  is  a  care-free  girl  with 
no  burdens,  one  whose  parents  give  her  every 
advantage  and  strive  to  make  her  girlhood 
happy,  life  is  one  great  joy  and  the  future 
an  even  more  wonderful  dream. 

But  these  girls,  every  one  of  them  is 
obliged  to  live  in  the  ordinary  world,  and 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

we  who  realize  it  must  so  train  them  that 
when  they  meet  it  in  reality  they  will  be  able 
to  live  happily. 

One  reason  why  there  is  so  much  misery 
and  unhappiness  in  home  life  to-day  is  because 
the  girl  in  her  teens  is  not  trained  to  live. 
Even  those  who  love  her  most  say,  "Oh,  she's 
young  yet,  there's  time  enough."  Meantime 
habits  are  formed  and  when  the  "time" 
comes  effective  training  is  not  possible.  In 
spite  of  hopes,  castles,  day-dreams,  most  girls 
are  destined  to  live  amid  the  commonplaces  of 
life,  and  unless  we  prepare  them,  many  will 
fail  to  learn  that 

"The  trivial  round,  the  common  task 
Will  furnish  all  we  ought  to  ask; 
Room  to  deny  ourselves,  a  road 
To  bring  us  daily  nearer  God," 

and  so  insure  our  happiness. 

The  Sunday-school  is  limited  of  course  in 
what  it  can  do  to  guide  the  girl  in  the  every- 
day, so  many  other  agencies  enter  into  her 
training,  and  yet  we  have  seen  that  what  we 
teach  on  Sunday  must  influence  her  on  Wed- 
nesday as  she  settles  some  question,  or  we 
have  not  really  helped  her. 

As  we  try  to  plan  how  we  may  best  help 
her  to  live,  we  ourselves  meet  the  question, 
106 


RELATION  TO  THE  EVERYDAY 

"What,  after  all,  do  we  want  her  to  be  in  this 
world  of  the  everyday  ?" 

It  is  a  little  hard  to  answer,  we  want  so 
much  for  her,  and  yet  it  can  all  be  summed 
up  in  one  sentence,  "We  want  her  to  be  com- 
fortable to  live  with." 

When  we  stop  to  think  of  what  a  flood  of 
blessing  would  come  to  this  old  world  if  all 
the  girls  now  in  their  teens  were  comfortable 
to  live  with,  and  will  be  as  they  develop  into 
full  womanhood,  we  know  no  effort  should 
be  spared  to  make  them  so. 

If  the  girl  in  her  teens  is  comfortable  to 
live  with  she  will  be  content  in  the  place 
where  she  is.  She  will  have  that  sane  satis- 
faction which  is  not  apathy  but  which  makes 
the  best  of  what  it  has  till  something  better 
can  be  found. 

Very  early  in  her  teens  the  girl  begins  to 
pencil  upon  her  face  the  first  tiny  lines  which 
in  later  years,  grown  deep  and  heavy,  will 
mark  her  discontent.  There  are  so  few  faces 
that  show  their  owners  have  learned  to  be 
content. 

A  sixteen-year-old  girl  friend  of  mine  the 
other  day  said  in  a  discouraged  way,  "Well, 
I  wish  Frances'  mother  felt  differently  about 
their  home.  Her  mother  is  such  a  lovely 
cook,  and  their  house  is  neat  and  pretty,  too, 

107 


THE   GIRL   IN    HER  TEENS 

but  she  will  never  let  Frances  have  any  of  the 
girls  to  dinner  because  they  haven't  a  maid. 
She  wouldn't  let  even  me  go  upstairs  to  Fran- 
ces' room,  and  I  know  it  must  be  so  pretty  by 
the  way  she  describes  it.  It  is  too  bad;  we 
just  love  her,  and  we  could  have  such  good 
times.  She  can't  accept  our  invitations  very 
often  because  her  mother  won't  let  her  enter- 
tain us.  It  is  just  too  bad." 

The  girl  was  right.  It  was  "too  bad"  to 
deprive  Frances  of  the  society  of  these  girls, 
who,  though  they  came  from  homes  where 
more  money  was  expended,  would  have  so 
enjoyed  her  simple  hospitality. 

Although  not  meaning  to  do  it,  her  mother 
is  teaching  Frances  to  place  wrong  values 
uptr  thirsts,  and  her  life  will  be  narrowed 
and  made  more  and  more  unhappy  because 
the  living-room  is  small,  and  the  floor  not  of 
hard  wood,  but  painted  around  the  outside  of 
the  rug,  and  she  will  come  to  believe  that  hap- 
piness consists  of  possessions.  When  she  mar- 
ries, like  thousands  of  other  girls  she  will  be 
unhappy  unless  her  own  new  home  is  per- 
fect in  equipment  from  the  start,  she  will 
want  the  new,  "up-to-date"  things  faster 
than  her  husband's  salary  can  supply  them, 
and  the  long  line  of  misery  that  follows  may 
easily  be  hers. 

108 


RELATION  TO  THE  EVERYDAY 

If,  instead,  her  mother  could  demonstrate 
that  a  neat,  clean,  and  therefore  attractive 
home  is  a  fit  place  in  which  to  entertain  any 
friend  by  welcoming  her  daughter's  friends  for 
a  good  time,  how  quickly  for  that  girl  things 
would  assume  their  right  places  in  the  scale 
of  importance.  We  can  help  her  to  be  happy 
and  content  by  showing  her  in  what  very 
simple  ways  good  times  may  be  had. 

If  the  girl  in  her  teens  grown  to  woman- 
hood is  to  be  comfortable  to  live  with  she  must 
be  trained  to  be  kind.  Kindness  is  born  in 
unselfishness,  and  if  we  expect  her  to  be  un- 
selfish, the  days  of  her  teens  must  be  her  train- 
ing days.  She  must  be  carefully  guarded  from 
daily  association  with  women  who  speak  cyni- 
cally of  life,  and  shielded  from  close  contact 
with  those  whose  conversation  is  invariably 
the  criticism  of  their  neighbor  She  must  be 
led  to  let  her  heart  speak — the  heart  is  rarely 
unjust  and  seldom  unkind.  Her  thoughts 
must  be  continually  turned,  as  were  those  of 
Frances  Willard  and  Alice  Freeman  Palmer, 
toward  her  neighbors  in  need,  until  a  world- 
sympathy  is  born  in  her,  and  the  joy  of  help- 
ing makes  her  keen  to  help.  The  girl  to  whose 
lips  almost  involuntarily  spring  the  words 
"Let  me  help  you"  will  not  find  it  so  easy 
to  utter  the  cutting  word  or  the  phrase  that 
109 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

leaves  a  sting.  A  real  interest  in  "the  other 
girl"  will  tend  to  make  her  unselfish. 

If  she  is  comfortable  to  live  with  she  must 
be  thoughtful.  Thoughtfulness  also  has  its 
birth  in  unselfishness.  The  girl  wrapped  up 
in  thoughts  of  herself  has  little  time  to  be 
concerned  with  others,  and  demands  invari- 
ably that  she  be  the  center  of  the  circle.  She 
does  not  make  others  comfortable  and  is  not 
good  to  live  with. 

The  girl  who  is  good  to  live  with  in  the 
world  of  the  everyday,  shares  her  joys  and 
pleasures  with  the  family.  How  many  times 
I  have  seen  a  tired  mother  forget  her  cares 
listening  to  the  recital  of  her  daughter's  "good 
times" !  Her  petty  little  annoyances,  her  dis- 
appointments, she  keeps  to  herself. 

After  all,  when  we  sum  up  the  qualities  of 
the  girl  in  her  teens  which  endear  her  to  every 
one,  and  make  her  good  to  live  with,  we  can 
put  them  under  the  one  word  unselfish.  If 
she  is  this,  then  she  will  apply  herself  to  her 
studies ;  she  will  remember  her  mother's  bur- 
dens and  not  add  to  them;  she  will  think  of 
all  she  owes  to  her  father  and  show  her  grati- 
tude to  him;  she  will  be  a  helpful  friend  to 
the  boys  and  girls  with  whom  she  associates, 
and  she  will  have  a  good  time,  as  the  unsel- 
.iJi  girl  invariably  does.  By  frequent  illus- 
no 


RELATION  TO  THE  EVERYDAY 

trations  taken  from  life,  the  Sunday-school 
teacher  may  hope  to  make  her  see  how  true 
these  things  are.  An  absolutely  unselfish  girl 
may  be,  as  those  in  their  teens  say  she  is,  "im- 
possible," but  the  impossible  can  be  made  won- 
derfully attractive  by  the  teacher  who  can 
picture  the  girl  in  her  teens  at  her  best. 

In  her  life  in  the  everyday,  no  matter  what 
her  circumstances  may  be,  the  girl  is  con- 
stantly tempted  to  live  below  her  best.  The 
temptation  to  be  disagreeable  about  the  house- 
hold tasks  that  fall  to  her,  to  forget  the  er- 
rand she  is  asked  to  do,  to  be  careless  about 
her  room,  to  leave  things  for  her  mother  to 
look  after  and  put  away,  to  be  impatient  with 
younger  brothers  and  sisters — all  these  things 
are  so  easy.  Not  to  yield  to  them  requires 
constant  watchfulness  and  struggle,  and  the 
word  of  warning  on  the  part  of  the  teacher, 
through  story  and  illustration  each  Sunday, 
helps  the  girl  see  these  faults  in  all  their  mis- 
erable littleness. 

In  her  school  life  she  meets  the  temptation 
to  neglect  her  studies,  and  to  spend  too  much 
time  on  the  social  side.  Many  girls  are 
tempted  to  yield  to  petty  deceptions;  some 
are  tempted  to  copy  or  exchange  work ;  many 
are  discourteous,  and  many  more  do  nothing 
to  make  school  life  happy  for  any  except 
in 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

in  their  own  "set."  Some  whose  parents  are 
so  unwise  as  to  leave  them  without  knowledge 
or  protection  fall  into  temptations  from  which 
they  never  escape. 

The  high-school  girl  needs  from  the  earnest 
lips  of  a  woman  she  admires  the  weekly  word 
of  warning,  and  the  oft-repeated  plea  to  keep 
herself  pure  and  fine. 

If  the  girl  in  her  teens  is  in  business  she 
meets  daily  the  temptation  to  let  her  own 
interests  interfere  with  her  employer's,  to 
waste  time,  to  give  excuses,  to  indulge  in 
pleasures  that  do  not  uplift,  but  mean  late 
hours,  little  sleep,  and  physical  unfitness  for 
work.  She  needs  every  Sunday  the  practi- 
cal words  of  warning  and  inspiration  straight 
from  the  heart  of  a  woman  who  understands 
her  temptations  and  can  help  her  to  over- 
come them. 

Wherever  the  girl  in  her  teens  finds  her- 
self she  needs  some  one  to  make  her  want 
to  be  her  best  amidst  all  the  things  which  tend 
to  pull  her  down.  She  needs  strong  words 
that  will  show  her  to  herself  in  all  her  weak- 
ness making  her  ashamed  if  she  has  yielded, 
and  at  the  same  time  arousing  in  her  the  de- 
termination not  to  yield  again. 

When  the  teacher  understands  the  girl  in 
her  teens  and  lives  close  enough  to  her  to 
112 


RELATION  TO  THE  EVERYDAY 

become  her  confidante,  she  knows  how  hard 
the  fight  to  be  good  and  fine  and  strong  in 
the  everyday  is,  and  she  realizes  more  and 
more  as  her  experience  broadens  that  while 
the  girl's  love  for  her  parents  is  a  great  in- 
centive toward  right  living,  and  desire  to 
please  those  whom  she  greatly  admires  is  a 
help,  and  while  unhappiness  and  other  con- 
sequences of  evil-doing  act  as  deterring  agents, 
yet  no  one  of  these  things,  nor  all  of  them 
together,  will  prove  strong  enough  to  keep 
her  pure  and  honest  and  make  her  unselfish. 

What  will?  Nothing  will  make  her  ab- 
solutely perfect.  Only  one  thing,  so  far  as 
I  know,  will  keep  her  safe  and  strong  in 
the  life  of  the  everyday.  That  thing  is  the 
consciousness  that  she  lives  in  the  presence 
of  God,  accepting  Jesus  Christ  as  her  example 
and  her  Helper  in  her  effort  to  live  aright. 

A  girl  conscious  that  she  lives  out  each  day 
under  the  pure,  kind  eye  of  an  infinite  per- 
sonality, interested  in  her  efforts  toward  right- 
eousness, and  that  she  need  not  be  afraid  to 
ask  for  strength  or  for  pardon,  finds  it  easier 
to  do  right  and  harder  to  do  wrong  than  the 
other  girl  who  leaves  him  out  of  the  struggle. 

In  all  the  hundreds  of  girls  and  women  I 
have  met,  the  most  thoughtful,  generous  and 
unselfish,  the  purest  in  heart  and  mind,  those 
"3 


THE   GIRL   IN   HERTEENS 

richest  in  the  finer  traits  of  humanity,  have 
been  conscious  of  the  presence  of  God  in  the 
world  of  the  everyday. 

They  live  as  in  the  presence  of  a  perfect 
father,  and  live  aright,  not  because  men  see, 
but  because  he  sees,  and  they  are  able  to  live 
as  they  do  because  they  ask  for  help  and  re- 
ceive it.  If  we  are  to  be  of  real  help  to  the 
girl  in  her  teens,  this  consciousness  of  the 
reality  of  God  we  must  give  to  her. 

I  have  so  often  seen  it  help  in  the  lives  of 
individual  girls.  I  am  thinking  now  of  Vivian, 
whose  parents  had  given  her  up  in  despair. 
She  was  careless,  rude,  and  untruthful.  In 
school  her  teachers  considered  her  "a  bad 
girl.''  The  Sunday-school  teacher  who  took 
her  class  when  she  was  fifteen  was  one  to 
whom  the  Christ  was  very  real.  She  talked 
about  him  reverently,  as  if  he  were  a  real 
friend  and  a  great  help  in  everyday  life.  She 
interested  Vivian.  At  Christmas  she  gave 
her  Hoffman's  "Christ."  Vivian  put  it  on 
her  bureau,  dusted  the  picture  every  day,  and 
thought  about  it  often.  The  teacher  loaned 
her  books  of  the  sort  which  made  Christ  seem 
a  real  friend.  She  began  to  think  of  him  as 
such  and  to  pray  that  he  would  help  her  over- 
come the  things  that  everybody  despised.  She 
read  "What  would  Jesus  do?"  several  times. 
114 


RELATION  TO  THE  EVERYDAY 

She  began  to  feel  that  God  saw  and  cared,  and 
as  she  worded  it,  "I  felt  that  in  all  these  hard 
things  Christ  would  help  me,  and  I  asked  him 
many  times  every  day  to  make  me  do  as  he 
would." 

Her  room  showed  that  something  had  come 
to  Vivian.  A  quietness  came  into  her  con- 
versation. She  treated  her  mother  with  a 
gentleness  that  was  so  different  that  her 
mother  cried  when  she  told  the  teacher  about 
it.  The  girls  saw  the  difference.  Twice  when 
she  had  been  untruthful  she  went  to  her  teach- 
ers and  confessed  it.  She  made  a  desperate 
struggle  to  speak  accurately.  Her  father 
called  her  a  changed  girl,  and  his  face  showed 
his  joy  over  the  change.  She  is  to-day  one 
of  the  sweetest,  strongest  young  women  I 
know,  prominent  in  her  college  and  trusted 
and  loved  by  scores  of  girls. 

She  is  one  of  many  whose  lives  I  have  seen 
changed,  and  as  the  years  pass,  and  I  see  the 
power  of  the  Christ  still  working  miracles  in 
girls'  lives,  I  long  for  more  teachers  like  that 
one  who  opened  Vivian's  eyes. 

The  greatest  thing  which  the  teacher  can  do 
for  the  girl  in  her  teens  is  to  open  her  eyes 
to  a  real  Christ,  for  then  all  the  incentives  for 
pure,  unselfish  living  in  the  commonplaces  of 
life's  "everyday"  will  be  hers. 


CHAPTER  X 

HER  TEACHER 

When  for  a  moment  one  remembers  the  girl 
in  her  teens,  the  long  line  that  lives  in  the  mem- 
ory from  those  just  thirteen  up  through  the 
sweetest  and  prettiest  at  sixteen,  to  the  beau- 
tiful, graceful,  and  dignified  ones  just  twenty, 
it  makes  a  picture  hard  to  equal. 

There  is  such  evident  joy  in  just  living! 
When  one  catches  a  glimpse  of  the  groups  in 
their  light  dresses,  with  hair  ribbons  of  every 
size  and  color  according  to  the  wearer's  inter- 
pretation of  the  latest  fashion,  wending  their 
way  to  the  high  school,  he  feels  that  life  is  in- 
deed a  glorious  summer  morning.  Though 
sighs  and  complaints  may  be  heard  over  les- 
sons too  long  and  too  difficult,  they  are  not 
very  deep,  and  are  soon  forgotten ;  though  low 
marks  do  make  very  serious  students  with 
minds  concentrated  on  work  for  a  few  days 
after  report  cards  are  out,  yet  with  the  ma- 
jority the  depression  is  short-lived,  and  life  is 
sunshine  once  more. 

When  as  whistles  blow  and  factory  gates 
swing  wide,  one  catches  a  glimpse  in  the  early 
116 


HER  TEACHER 

morning  of  the  girl  in  her  teens  going  to  work, 
he  hears  snatches  of  happy  laughter  and  jest- 
ing. No  matter  how  hard  the  work,  it  cannot 
crush  out  the  laughter  in  the  heart  of  the  girl 
in  her  teens;  the  good  times  after  work  is 
over  or  at  the  week  end  when  she  puts  on  her 
ribbons  and  gay  attire  make  easier  the  crash  of 
machinery  and  less  painful  the  aching  muscles. 

The  girl  in  her  teens  is  glad  she  is  alive,  and 
her  evident  and  keen  enjoyment  of  a  world 
which  some  of  her  elders  have  found  hard  and 
a  little  disappointing  does  more  to  cheer  and 
brighten  the  dull  gray  of  the  commonplace 
than  she  knows,  or  than  we  stop  to  remember. 

As  we  think  of  this  long  procession  of  the 
girl  in  her  teens  which  memory  can  so  easily 
recall,  and  then  see  in  imagination  the  host  of 
those  who  call  themselves  her  teachers,  we  are 
tempted  to  cry,  "Her  teachers !  What  manner 
of  beings  are  they  who  pretend  to  instruct,  en- 
lighten and  guide  all  this  energy,  this  fascinat- 
ing line  of  possibility  and  promise!" 

It  is  easy  to  write  or  speak  of  the  "ideal" 
teacher  for  all  this  fresh  young  life,  filled  with 
inexpressible  longings  for  success  and  happi- 
ness. But  the  study  of  the  very  human  and 
very  real  teacher,  ideal  only  in  the  highest 
sense,  in  that  she  is  struggling  after  perfection, 
will  be  much  more  practical  and  helpful  to  us. 
117 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

Should  the  teacher  of  girlhood  in  the  years 
of  the  teens  ever  be  a  man  ? 

Yes,  there  have  been  many  fine,  successful 
teachers  whose  strength  and  manly  qualities, 
whose  sincere  devotion  to  Christ  and  his  teach- 
ings, have  had  a  lasting  influence  for  good 
upon  the  girl  in  her  teens. 

It  is  a  good  thing  for  the  girl  to  see  the 
world  and  its  relation  to  moral  and  religious 
life  through  the  eyes  of  a  far-seeing  man.  It 
is  a  help  to  her  to  get  his  mental  grasp  of  situ- 
ations as  from  week  to  week  they  follow  to- 
gether the  life  of  Christ  and  his  teachings  or 
seek  to  understand  the  characters  of  Old  Tes- 
tament days. 

A  fine  man's  frankness,  sincerity,  and  gen- 
eral freedom  from  the  annoyance  of  little 
things  prove  a  stimulus  and  a  help  to  the  girl. 
It  is  almost  unnecessary  to  say  that  he  must  be  • 
the  right  sort  of  man,  large-hearted,  strong, 
and  free  from  all  suggestion  of  the  "goody- 
goody." 

However,  it  has  been  my  experience  that 
while  a  man  makes  a  most  efficient  teacher  for 
the  class  during  the  hour  of  the  Sunday-school 
session,  he  cannot  guide  and  influence  a  girl's 
life  in  the  everyday  as  can  the  right  sort  of 
woman.  Unless  he  has  a  home  and  a  wife 
thoroughly  interested  in  his  work,  or  herself 
118 


HER  TEACHER 

active  in  the  work  of  the  Church,  he  can  do 
little  in  a  social  way  during  the  week.  If  he  is 
a  successful,  hard-working  man  he  has  little 
time  to  think  of  the  girls  or  their  needs  except 
on  Sunday,  and  unless  he  is  a  man  of  wide 
experience  or  has  daughters  of  his  own  he 
does  not  understand  girls,  and  must  per- 
force deal  in  generalities. 

In  this  matter,  as  everywhere  in  life,  there 
are  exceptions,  and  no  hard  and  fast  law  can 
be  laid  down,  but  my  experience  thus  far  has 
been  that,  all  things  considered,  a  womanly 
woman  is  best  fitted  to  meet  the  many  needs  of 
the  girl  in  her  teens. 

She  must  be  a  womanly  woman,  else  she  will 
have  forgotten  her  own  girlhood  days  and  can- 
not come  near  enough  to  the  girl  in  her  teens 
to  appreciate  her  need,  nor  will  she  have  the 
personality  that  wins  her  confidence  and  love. 
The  cold,  hard,  mechanical  sort  of  woman  one 
occasionally  finds  in  charge  of  a  class  of  girls 
is  not  the  one  whose  influence  will  be  felt  in 
the  years  to  come. 

We  have  seen  again  and  again  in  previous 
chapters  that  the  teacher  of  the  girl  in  her 
teens  must  be  in  love  with  life.  If  she  has 
found  it  hard,  she  must  not  let  that  embitter 
her.  The  fact  that  she  has  met  hardships  and 
conquered  them,  has  met  sorrow  and  it  has 
119 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

only  deepened  her  sympathy  and  broadened  her 
outlook  on  life,  makes  her  a  real  inspiration  to 
the  girls  who  meet  her  each  week. 

I  am  thinking  now  of  such  a  woman,  into 
whose  life  one  heavy  sorrow  after  another  has 
come.  At  thirty  she  is  alone  in  the  world,  hav- 
ing lost  in  ten  years  parents,  husband  and  two 
children.  Yet  there  is  no  bitterness  in  her  life. 
She  is  not  in  any  sense  a  cynic.  More  than 
twenty  girls,  from  sixteen  to  nineteen  years  of 
age,  who  make  up  her  class,  leave  the  presence 
of  that  sweet,  strong  woman  with  her  tender, 
sympathetic  spirit,  and  her  calm,  steady  faith, 
able  all  the  week  to  live  better,  more  whole- 
some lives  because  they  have  been  with  her  for 
one  hour.  She  never  speaks  of  herself,  but 
often  of  courage,  of  hope,  of  making  the  best 
of  things,  of  giving  all  one  can  in  service  to  the 
world,  of  unselfish,  cheerful  living,  and  the 
girls  listen  and  believe  that  all  she  says  is  true 
and  possible. 

The  teacher  must  be  an  optimist.  She  is  not 
self-deceived,  she  sees  the  faults  of  the  girl  in 
her  teens.  She  is  conscious  of  the  thoughtless- 
ness, the  utter  lack  of  courtesy,  the  love  of  the 
extreme  in  everything,  and  the  greater  faults 
of  insincerity  and  pretense  that  characterize 
to  so  great  an  extent  the  girlhood  of  to-day. 
But  while  she  is  pained  she  is  not  dismayed. 

120 


HER  TEACHER 

She  is  a  good  diagnostician.  She  examines  her 
individual  patients,  finds  the  weak  places,  dis- 
covers the  cause  of  the  disease,  and  then  goes 
to  work  systematically  to  eradicate  it,  trust- 
ing to  the  normal,  unaffected  organs, and  tis- 
sues to  aid  in  restoring  perfect  health.  She 
believes  in  and  uses  preventive  measures  and 
they  pay. 

The  teacher  must  herself  be  an  example  in 
thoughtfulness  and  courtesy,  respectful  to 
those  higher  in  office,  and  willing  to  co-operate 
with,  instead  of  criticizing,  those  who  have 
plans  by  which  they  hope  to  add  to  the  effici- 
ency of  the  school  as  a  whole. 

None  of  these  things  are  lost  upon  the  keen- 
eyed  girl  in  her  teens ;  indeed,  the  teacher's 
dress,  even  the  condition  of  her  gloves,  makes 
an  impression  and  has  an  influence. 

It  has  become  a  truism  that  to  be  successful 
in  teaching  one  must  know  the  pupil ;  yet  only 
last  week  I  met  a  teacher  anxious  for  a  new 
course  of  study  which  would  interest  her  class 
of  girls  sixteen  and  seventeen  years  of  age, 
who  revealed  in  conversation  the  fact  that  she 
knew  practically  nothing  of  the  girl's  homes. 
She  did  not  even  know  the  section  of  the  city 
in  which  many  of  them  lived,  had  made  no 
calls  and  could  tell  the  occupation  of  only  two 
of  the  fathers.  She  did  not  know  for  what  the 

121 


THE   GIRL   IN   HER  TEENS 

girls  were  preparing  themselves,  nor  any  of 
their  hopes  or  desires,  and  she  had  taught  the 
class  for  two  years.  She  said  the  girls  were 
not  interested,  and  did  not  prepare  assigned 
work. 

This  type  of  teacher  is  fast  disappearing,  but 
wherever  she  exists  the  fact  that  the  class 
seems  to  be  "not  interested"  indicates  very 
clearly  that  those  who  insist  that  the  teacher 
must  know  the  girl  are  right. 

In  the  series  of  studies  of  the  girl  in  her 
teens  an  article  appeared  in  The  Sunday  School 
Times1  giving  the  opinions  of  several  hundred 
girls  as  to  what  constitutes  "a  lovely  teacher/' 
and  according  to  the  statements  of  these  girls, 
a  lovely  teacher  is,  "pleasant,"  "fair  to  every- 
body," "treats  every  one  alike,"  and  "is  inter- 
ested in  what  you  are  doing."  "She  writes 
notes  to  you  when  you  are  ill,"  "calls  on  you," 
"is  kind  and  patient,"  "makes  the  lesson  inter- 
esting," "explains  what  you  don't  understand," 
and  "knows  a  great  deal." 

Upon  these  as  necessary  qualifications  of  "a 
lovely  teacher,"  the  girl  in  her  teens  from  all 
sorts  of  homes  and  from  various  parts  of  our 
country  is  agreed,  and  as  we  think  about  it  we 
feel  inclined  to  trust  her  analysis. 

When  the  average  teacher  tests  herself  by 

*  "A  Lovely  Teacher,"  March  5,  1910. 

122 


—  <- 


Hff    R  TEACHER 

rstandards,  she  finds  deficiencies,  but  they 
discouraging  ones,  because  every  char- 
acffrTstic  named  by  the  girls  is  possible  to  every 
tfficher. 

She  can  make  things  interesting  if  she  is  in- 
terested and  takes  time  to  prepare  her  lesson 
material.  It  is  a  never-failing  source  of  sur- 
prise to  discover  what  interesting  material, — 
anecdotes,  illustrations,  pictures  and  informa- 
tion,— can  be  found  upon  every  subject  when 
one  is  looking  for  it. 

It  is  perfectly  possible  for  the  average 
teacher  to  be  "pleasant" — to  carry  about  with 
her  the  atmosphere  in  which  work  becomes 
a  pleasure  and  difficult  problems  are  just  things 
to  be  conquered.  This  atmosphere  of  cheer- 
ful hopefulness  makes  everything  easy.  For 
many  teachers  it  is  the  natural  attitude  toward 
life  and  work,  which  comes  from  constant 
association  with  eager,  buoyant  youth.  If  it 
is  not  natural  it  may  be  cultivated. 

"Notes"  and  "calls"— acts  of  thoughtful 
kindness  on  the  part  of  the  teacher  when  ill- 
ness or  trouble  enters  a  home,  may  be  small 
things  in  themselves,  but  they  mean  much  to  the 
adolescent  girl,  and  they  bring  their  own  re- 
ward. They  also  are  possible  to  every  teacher. 

The  confidence  of  a  girl  is  more  easily  gained 
if  one,  to  use  her  own  phrase,  "really  likes" 
123 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEElMS 

her.  If  a  teacher  knows  her  pupil,  that  is,  sees 
her  as  an  individual,  learns  her  ambiti6ns, 
longings,  hopes  and  fears,  she  does  "like"  her. 
It  is  almost  impossible  not  to  like  the  average 
girl  when  one  knows  her.  Every  teacher  can 
learn  to  teach  individuals,  not  classes,  and 
girls,  not  subjects  alone. 

The  wise  men  of  the  past  have  told  us,  and 
experience  and  observation  have  proved,  that 
we  grow  to  resemble  that  which  we  admire. 
Admiration  means  imitation,  therefore  the 
necessity  that  those  who  are  striving  to  awaken 
the  best  in  the  girl  in  her  teens  be  those  she 
can  and  does  admire,  and  have  traits  of  char- 
acter she  ought  to  imitate. 

There  never  was  a  time  in  the  history  of  re- 
ligion when  so  many  tools  and  such  fine  equip- 
ment for  service  were  ready  for  those  who 
want  to  be  skilled  workmen,  and  the  teachers 
who  desire  the  skill  to  make  their  work  on 
Sunday  really  count  in  life  every  day  in  the 
week,  have  but  to  begin  just  where  they  are 
and  progress  as  fast  as  possible.  Bible  classes 
for  those  who  want  and  need  to  know  more  of 
the  Book  they  teach  are  easy  of  access  to  many, 
and  courses  of  study  are  open  to  all.  The 
training  class,  where  the  characteristics  of  the 
various  ages,  and  the  needs  of  pupils,  and  how 
to  meet  them,  may  be  intelligently  considered, 
124 


HER  TEACHER 

is  possible  in  any  community,  and  good  corre- 
spondence courses  are  now  available. 

If  one  desires  to  do  so  it  is  perfectly  possible 
for  him  to  become  a  better  teacher  for  the  sake 
of  those  whom  he  instructs.  For  it  is  in  de- 
sire, after  all,  that  action  is  born,  and  that 
which  one  greatly  desires  he  will  seek  after. 
To  help  the  girl  in  her  teens  see  the  best  in  life 
and  desire  it,  we  have  said,  is  the  business  of 
her  teacher.  Through  the  physical,  mental, 
and  spiritual  sides  of  her  nature,  the  teacher  is 
to  lift  the  girl  to  the  place  where  she  can  see 
for  herself. 

There  are  so  many  girls  all  over  our  country, 
and  in  the  farthest  corners  of  the  earth,  to-day 
rendering  splendid  service  to  the  world,  some- 
times in  the  shelter  of  their  own  homes  caring 
for  their  children,  sometimes  in  great  hospitals, 
or  lonely  outposts  as  nurses,  sometimes  as 
teachers  or  missionaries,  often  as  servants  of 
every  sort,  who  are  living  with  a  broad  out- 
look and  deep,  sympathetic  insight,  because 
somewhere,  back  in  the  teens,  by  the  patient 
effort  of  teachers  they  were  lifted  out  of  their 
narrow  selves  to  the  place  where  they  were 
able  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  real  meaning 
of  life. 

Finding  it  impossible  one  day  to  make  my 
way  through  the  crowds  on  the  street  waiting 
125 


THE   GIRL  IN   HER  TEENS 

for  a  procession  to  pass,  I  stopped,  and  stand- 
ing back  a  little  from  the  curb  watched  the 
eager  faces  gazing  up  the  street.  Right  in 
front  of  me  stood  a  group  of  men  in  their 
working  clothes,  and  in  their  midst  a  tall, 
broad-shouldered  expressman,  explaining  the 
reason  for  the  "parade."  In  a  moment  the 
sound  of  brass  instruments  burst  upon  us,  a 
line  of  policemen  swung  into  sight,  the  crowd 
of  small  boys  following  close  beside  the  uni- 
formed men,  their  eyes  on  the  flying  banners, 
and  keeping  step  as  only  boys  can. 

Suddenly  above  the  noises  of  the  street, 
above  the  commands  of  the  officers  and  the 
music  of  the  band,  I  heard  a  little,  thin,  shrill 
voice  from  the  crowded  corner  where  the  men 
stood,  cry  out,  "Lift  me  up  so  I  can  see !"  It 
was  a  street  child,  a  little  girl,  whose  dress  and 
face  showed  that  neither  money,  time,  nor 
thought  had  been  expended  upon  her.  She 
looked  so  tiny  as  she  stood  there  trying  to  peer 
through  the  crowd  at  the  procession  in  the 
street.  But  she  was  not  afraid.  Again  it 
came,  "Lift  me  up,  I  say,  so  I  can  see !" 
Eager,  insistent,  rilled  with  desire,  the  voice 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  men.  There  was 
a  moment's  hesitation,  and  then  with  that  look 
one  loves  to  see  upon  the  face  of  a  strong  man, 
the  expressman  stooped  and  picked  her  up. 
126 


HER  TEACHER 

As  he  held  her  there,  high  above  the  heads  of 
the  others,  one  little  arm  went  round  his  neck, 
and  she  "held  on  tight"  while  the  other  hand 
pointed  at  horses,  banners  and  men,  and  she 
called  out  again  and  again  in  her  joy  and  de- 
light, "Now  I  can  see,  I  can  see  everything!" 
The  procession  passed.  He  placed  her  on 
the  sidewalk,  and  as  the  crowd  scattered  she 
hurried  away,  satisfaction  written  upon  her 
small  face.  But  as  I  walked  slowly  back  to- 
ward the  great  school  buildings  on  the  hill, 
her  voice  rang  in  my  ears,  "Lift  me  up  so  I  can 
see !"  And  I  knew  that  that  is  the  unconscious 
cry  of  the  childhood  of  the  world  to  the  teach- 
ers of  the  world ;  that  those  words  are  the  plea, 
often  unexpressed,  of  the  girlhood  of  to-day — 
"Lift  me  up — so  I  can  see !"  And  I  know  that 
those  who  answer  must  themselves  have  eyes 
opened  by  the  Christ,  to  see,  and  hearts  quick- 
ened by  his  power,  to  lift. 


127 


18May'56PT 
MAY  9~  1956  LU 


GENERAL  LIBRARY  -  U.C.  BERKELEY 


O &>  jo    \ 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


